Russian MFA Articulates South Ossetia Position

On September 18 the official website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published an information note “Regarding the Meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity.”

According to the information, the South Ossetian leader “expressed a readiness” to hold a meeting with the Georgian Prime-Minister Zurab Zhvania in the South Russian town of Sochi.

The agenda of the meeting should include “additional guarantees for the strict enforcement of a cease-fire; the implementation of the decisions made by the Joint Control Commission (JCC) regarding the withdrawal of all illegal armed groups in the zone of conflict; other immediate steps for defusing the crisis situation; stabilization of the situation in the conflict zone and confidence-building among the sides.”

In accordance with OSCE proposals, South Ossetia does not object to an increase of OSCE observers in the area, a move that will boost the number of observers to 10.

Also, regarding the address by the acting chairman of the OSCE Solomon Passy, the “South Ossetian side does not in principle object against holding the meeting on high level in the framework of JCC, with participation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their deputies, as well as the representative of the OSCE. The meetigng should foresee to review, in particular, the question of increasing and rectifying the status of the JCC as the only permanent quadripartite mechanism of the sides participating in conflict regulation.”

The proposals seem to go against earlier Georgian proposals to internationalize the peace process in South Ossetia, as it still confines the resolution process to the JCC, which Georgia regards as a mechanism inappropriately over-representing Russia.