Parliament official claims US delegation at OSCE Parliamentary Assembly proposed wording “strengthening Russian positions” on occupied regions

Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Wednesday claimed the United States delegation at an ongoing session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe had proposed a wording for an OSCE resolution that “strengthened Russian positions” with regards to Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions.

The comment came after the ruling Georgian Dream party on Tuesday denounced the wording in the resolution regarding the occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions after it mentioned them, instead of Russia, as parties in the conflict.

The mention came in the resolution titled “The role of the OSCE in the current security architecture: a parliamentary perspective”, adopted at the 31st annual session of the Assembly.

When such resolutions are drafted, we always try to reflect the issue of Georgia correctly. Even now, we tried, and several amendments were included in the text on our initiative regarding the conflict with Russia. But there was a proposal from the American delegation to include wording in the text of the resolution that strengthens Russian positions and contradicts our decades-long struggle to show the entire world that this is a conflict between Russia and Georgia, not between Georgians and Abkhazians or Georgians and Ossetians”, Botchorishvili said.

“We had very strong reactions both at the Committee and within the session, we also had reactions through Embassies and communication with the American side that a resolution with such a text could not be adopted. Although this text was approved within the Committee, in the end, at the last moment, by the decision of the American delegation, this entry was withdrawn from the text of the resolution, although this fact itself is very disturbing”, she added.

The lawmaker also said it was “worrying when strategic partners voice positions that strengthen Russian positions”.