OSCE Chairmanship welcomes steady progress at Geneva discussions on Georgia

GENEVA, 19 May 2009 - The Greek OSCE Chairmanship said it welcomed the steady progress made at the latest round of Geneva Discussions that ended today.

"A key element of this fifth round of Geneva Discussions was that participants began to discuss concrete security arrangements," said Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. "We are also moving forward on humanitarian questions, including on water, where the OSCE is playing a specific role."

He and the other two co-chairs - Ambassador Johan Verbeke of the UN and Ambassador Pierre Morel of the EU - agreed with the participants that the next meeting would be in Geneva on 1 July.

The discussions today and yesterday took place in two parallel working groups; one looking at security and stability in the region and the other at humanitarian questions including internally displaced persons and refugees.

Christopoulos said he was happy the participants had agreed to a joint needs assessment team lead by an international expert under the auspices of the OSCE to look at the repair needs to guarantee water supplies.

"The OSCE's core business is furthering and maintaining security and stability in Europe," he said. "For this reason, the OSCE remains firmly committed to playing its part in the Geneva Discussions as one of the three Co-Chairs and to playing its part in the joint incident prevention mechanisms."