Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Georgia believes the most "considerable" achievement of the 21st round of international discussions in Geneva on security and stability in the South Caucasus is a document to launch talks on the non-use of force, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze said Friday.

"We have reached agreement to begin drafting a joint document and we hope that Russia will assume responsibility for non-use of force," he told journalists.

Kapanadze said that in this case Tbilisi will secure a guarantee that "Russia will officially abandon a possible new aggression against Georgia".

He underlined that this is going to be an international obligation which is not easy to violate and will ensure Georgia's security.

However, Moscow wants to ensure that this agreement will be signed with Tbilisi on one side and with Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the other.

The negotiations took place in Geneva on Thursday and Friday. Representatives of Georgia, Russia, the U.S., the two Georgian rebel regions, as well as the UN, OSCE, and EU participated in the talks.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia are two self-proclaimed republics in the Caucasus with disputed status over whether they are a part of Georgia or sovereign states.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia after crushing a Georgian assault to reassert control over the breakaway regions in August 2008. In response, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and announced the two unrecognized republics as the occupied territories.

The two-day Geneva talks focused on continuing the discussion on the fate of refugees and internally displaced persons from the occupied regions of Georgia, as well as on the issue of missing people.

Representatives of Georgian Dream, the opposition coalition that recently won the parliamentary election in Georgia, which made its leader, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the favorite to become prime minister, voiced their discontent with the results of the Geneva talks.

The Kapanadze-led Georgian delegation included representatives of Georgian Dream -- candidate for Minister of Reintegration Paata Zakareishvili and expert on conflicts Giorgi Volski, who joined the discussions as observers.

The Georgian representatives stated that the Abkhaz and South Ossetian sides had boycotted all their attempts to establish direct dialogue on possible future relations with the new government of Georgia.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia were recognized by six and five UN member states respectively. They are also mutually recognized by two UN non-member states and by each other.

South Ossetia was recognized as an independent republic by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and Tuvalu in the wake of the 2008 South Ossetia War.

Georgia and the vast majority of other countries do not recognize Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence and officially consider them as sovereign territory of the Georgian state.

The Geneva talks have taken place since October 2008, based on the agreement signed after the Russia-Georgian 2008 war, with representatives from Georgia, Russia, and the de facto governments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia taking part, along with the UN, OSCE and EU mediators.