Delegation of Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs visits EUMM

17.05.2013

A delegation of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited EUMM on 15 May. They stopped by the Mission’s headquarters in Tbilisi and accompanied monitors from EUMMs Field Office in Mtskheta on a patrol to the Odzisi check point.

Filip Vanden Bulcke, Desk for Eastern Europe, and Paul Furst, Head of Security Policy at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, showed particular interest in the installation of fences and recent detention cases.

Clive Trott, EUMM’s Chief of Operations, said that through our Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) our Mission facilitates “local solutions to local issues”, explaining that in areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia some people cannot visit their relatives, nor access their land.

He welcomed the Belgian delegation’s visit and highlighted the importance of EU Member States’ support to the Mission.

In Mtskheta the Head of the Field Office, Mat Whatley, provided the visitors with a full briefing about the Mission’s history, its mandate and its structure. He used the opportunity to thank the visitors for their contribution to the Mission’s staff.

Later the representatives of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs visited the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also met with the EU Special Representative (EUSR) for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia.