FM : 'Activation of OSCE is crucial for Georgia'

Activation of the OSCE is crucial for Georgia, Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said during a joint press conference with the OSCE chairperson, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, who is on a visit to Tbilisi. Vashadze stressed that this visit is very timely.

"Georgia has always claimed and will continue to do that for Georgia the activation of OSCE is of vital importance. A full-scale restoration of the OSCE mission and organisation's involvement in the on-going processes in Georgia are necessary. I'm not talking only about the political processes, it also applies to economy, reforms, democracy, culture and everything the mission was engaged in at the time," Vashadze said.

In turn, Gilmore noted that the OSCE is in talks with several countries on the return of the OSCE mission to Georgia. "I cannot promise anything, because negotiations are still on-going," he said.

Gilmore said that Ireland, as the OSCE chairperson, supports the return of the organisation's mission.

The OSCE mission was withdrawn from Georgia at the request of Russia which blocked its presence in Georgia following the conflict in that country in 2008.

Military actions were launched against the Georgian territory of South Ossetia on Aug.8 in 2008. Later Russian troops occupied the city of Tskhinvali and drove the Georgian military back. Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in late August. In response, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and announced the two unrecognised republics as being occupied territories.


/Trend/