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GENEVA -- Georgia and Russia resumed security talks on Tuesday after international mediators and a UN report helped nudge Moscow's negotiators back to the table, officials said.
Delegations from Russia and the Moscow-backed separatist region of South Ossetia had withdrawn from the two-day talks in Geneva on Monday, citing the refusal of another separatist region, Abkhazia, to attend because of a delay in the UN report.
In the report on the UN mission in Abkhazia, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said tensions between Georgia and Russia were weighing heavily on the region and that talks to date "have helped to maintain a relative calm" there.
The report cites the official title of "United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia" but otherwise skates around the sensitive question of whether Abkhazia is part of Georgia or not. The UN deploys 129 military observers, drawn from 30 states, and 16 police officers in Abkhazia.
Ban's report recommended that security zones with no armed forces or military equipment be enforced for 12 kilometers on both sides of the cease-fire line and restricted zones with no heavy military equipment for another 12 kilometers on each side.
Georgia and Russia had constructive talks Tuesday and agreed to meet again July 1, said senior EU diplomat Pierre Morel, one of the co-chairs of the talks.
Russia Gets UN Report
20 May 2009
Reuters
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