Georgian FM: gov't to use "all opportunities" with Geneva discussions to stop unlawful borderisation

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia David Zalkaliani has told reporters his office will use "all available opportunities" to prevent unlawful actions along the administrative boundary line separating Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia regions from the rest of Georgia.

Zalkaliani spoke following his meeting with co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, a platform for in international talks launched between the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia that has seen the two regions occupied by Russian military.

The foreign minister told reporters the meeting had concerned the process of "unlawful borderisation" on the administrative line - the demarcation and moving of the separation line by occupying forces intermittently taking place in locations adjacent to the ABL.

We will use all available opportunities, all formats in all three organisations in order to avoid unlawful actions in the future," Zalkaliani noted in his comments.

Co-chairs of the GID visited villages adjacent to the occupied regions to survey circumstances following most recent developments next to the ABL, the minister said, adding a Thursday meeting on incident prevention would involve talks on mechanisms to stop the unlawful borderisation.

Zalkaliani spoke to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the subject of the occupation and borderisation activities in a phone call earlier today.

The Georgian FM said he had also spoken to Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of the European Commission and Miroslav Lajcak, Chairperson-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to make sure their representatives travelled to Georgia in the wake of recent developments along the ABL.

The representatives had travelled to Georgia early due to the "unacceptable" conditions in the affected areas, where they could study the circumstances and offer reaction, Zalkaliani told the media.