Azerbaijan, Baku, May 19 /Trend News, E.Ostapenko/

The Co-Chairs of the UN, OSCE and EU under whose leadership the Geneva discussions on the situation in Georgia are taking place strongly regret the walk-out by the Russian participants at the beginning of the fifth session of the Geneva Discussions today, after the Abkhaz participants decided not to attend and after the walk-out of the South Ossetian participants, the OSCE released.

"This was all the more regrettable as today's discussions were precisely meant to offer an opportunity to listen to the views of all participants on all security-related and humanitarian questions as called for by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1866 of 13 February 2009," the joint statement by the UN, OSCE and EU Co-Chairs said.

On May 16, Abkhazia refused to attend the Geneva discussions, basing on that the UN Secretary General's report on the situation in the Caucasus was not publicized by May 15, as it was earlier promised. Abkhazia linked its participation in this event with the UN approach to the status of the republic. On May 18, The South Ossetian delegation left the meeting taking place in Geneva.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian delegation took a break until May 19 in the consultations on the situation in the Caucasus, hoping to obtain new data on this issue from the UN Secretary General.

The Co-Chairs are working for the resumption of discussions tomorrow morning, 19 May, as planned, and call upon all participants to be present. The Geneva Discussions provide the only forum where all participants can engage with one another on the key issues of security and stability as well as humanitarian questions.

The fifth round of the Geneva discussions is taking place on May 18-19.
The need for the Geneva discussions on the situation in the Caucasus aroused after the end of the war between Georgia and Russia due to break away of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgian.

Large-scale military operations were launched in South Ossetia on the night of Aug. 8. Georgian troops entered South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Later Russian troops seized the town and drove troops back to Georgia. On Aug. 26, Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and established diplomatic relations with the territories on Sept. 9.

Meetings of the EU, OSCE, UN, Russian, US, Georgia, Abkhaz and South Ossetian representatives aims to quickly stabilize the situation in the region. The first three rounds of the discussions had not yielded any concrete results. The fourth round of the Geneva consultations, which took place on February 17-18, was the most productive of all. For the first time, negotiators could coordinate the paper containing proposals for mechanisms to prevent and resolve incidents in Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at trend@trend.az