The EU Monitoring Mission under its mandate is working to bring about security and stability in the areas close to the administrative boundary lines of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
There have been various claims in recent weeks about increased forces on both sides of the administrative boundary lines. We are continuing to monitor the Georgian police and armed forces’ activities under the Memoranda of Understanding we have with the Interior and Defence Ministries. As we have already stated, we have not witnessed any activity that is contrary to these agreements.
We have also received various assurances from the Russian Forces about the nature of their recent additional deployments, but we need to have a greater exchange of information about these activities and the possibility to monitor what is happening on the other side of the administrative boundary lines.
The best way to reduce tension on all sides is to be able to discuss these and related issues under the Geneva agreed Incident Prevention Mechanism. It is disappointing that we had to adjourn the meeting planned for today as one side changed its position on a suitable location as expressed during the initial meeting on 23 April. We very much hope that this meeting can be held in the near future.
