EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia holds first meetings in Russia since 2011

The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia has been given its first opportunity in four years to address Russia about its ongoing provocation of Georgia in a bid to resolve the issues in Georgia’s two occupied regions and at the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL).

For the first time since 2011, head of the EUMM in Georgia, Kęstutis Jankauskas, visited Moscow on September 15-16 and held meetings with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and chief of the Border Security Directorate of the Russian FSB Border Service Nikolay Kozik.

An announcement on the EUMM website stated the main purpose of the group’s visit to Russia was to maintain working contacts in Moscow and to address the concerns of all sides in order to maintain stability and prevent escalation of the situation on the ground. 

Both meetings were held in a friendly, constructive and professional atmosphere,” the EUMM said. 

The EUMM said the security situation in Georgia and along the ABL with Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia was discussed with the Russian side within the framework of preparations for the next round of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting in Georgia and the Geneva International Discussions. 

Issues of borderisation, freedom of movement, access of local population to agricultural land as well as military exercises were raised and discusse,d as were practical issues such as interaction in the field between security actors,” said the EUMM.

Commitment of all sides to use the existing instruments such as the IPRM meetings and the hotline was stressed in order to maintain stability and predictability on the ground,” the agency added. 

The 58th IPRM meeting will take place on September 23 while the next round of the Geneva International Discussions will be held on October 6-7.