HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY THREE CO-CHAIRS OF THE GENEVA INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS FOLLOWING THE EIGHTEENTH ROUND

The three Co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, Philippe Lefort, European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and for the crisis in Georgia; Antti Turunen, United Nations Representative to the Geneva International Discussions and the Joint Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism; and Giedrius Cekuolis, Special Envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Chairperson-in-Office, held a press conference at the Palais des Nations this afternoon following the eighteenth round of the Geneva International Discussions.

Reading out their joint press communiqué, Mr. Lefort said that the participants of the Geneva International Discussions had just completed their eighteenth session. In Working Group I, the participants reviewed the security situation on the ground and welcomed the continued stable and calm environment. They also noted a positive trend towards improving stability on the ground. All participants appreciated the good and constructive work of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRM), in particular the intense use of the hotlines. Non-Use of Force and International Security Arrangements remained the focus of today’s session.

Some participants came up with new contributions to the debate in response to the Co-Chairs’ previous proposal on concrete steps towards a transitional security regime. Discussions on this particular topic, as yet inconclusive, will be continued. Under the item on best practices and co-operation, the Co-Chairs encouraged the participants to engage in confidence-building measures.

In Working Group II, the-participants reviewed the humanitarian situation, focusing on the needs and challenges of displaced persons and vulnerable populations. In addition, specific issues such as missing persons and cultural heritage preservation were discussed. In an information session, participants were given the opportunity to share experience and best practices related to the search for missing persons. The participants were given an update on various water-related projects lead by OSCE and financed by the EU.

The participants agreed to hold their next session on 28-29 March 2012.

Making additional comments Mr. Turunen spoke of the business-like and constructive debate in which all participants had engaged in finding common elements for discussion. He also thanked the OSCE for the work that had been done. The synergy between the co-chairs has worked well, he said, and had contributed to the normalisation of the situation on the ground. Meanwhile the work at the IPRM level had also contributed significantly, together with the efforts of other key stakeholders.

Overall the number of major incidents on the ground had reduced considerably, and this was a good basis for further confidence-building to help alleviate the concerns of population on the ground. He also noted that an agreement on patrol behaviour had been reached and that the discussions on joint efforts to fight crime would be continued. These developments were promising for next year’s discussions, he added, and he hoped for the enhanced political will to continue in overcoming the concerns of the local population.

He also reconfirmed the commitment of the United Nations in taking part in the discussions, and said that the various agencies within it would continue to work to facilitate the process.

Finally, Mr. Cekuolis said this was his last formal participation and he welcomed the Irish Ambassador Murphy who would replace him as the representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office next year. He spoke of the process as a series of small but meaningful steps and stressed that he believed it could be successful. On the topics discussed today, he said the water projects that had been mentioned would shortly be completed.

He added that during his tenure he had tried to be consistent in calling on all parties to address the security situation, in particular stating there should be no use of force and he reminded participants of the importance of unilateral commitments on this. He also spoke of discussions about the establishment of an OSCE support team and said he hoped an agreement on the compromise proposal could be reached. He concluded saying he was glad to welcome the commitment to missing persons expressed in today’s talks, saying it was clearly a humanitarian issue which must be addressed in a non-political way.



For use of the information media; not an official record