Georgian FM protests PACE-South Ossetia meeting

The Georgian Foreign Ministry protested a meeting on post-conflict settlement between PACE Monitoring Committee Co-Rapporteur David Wilshire and Special Representative of South Ossetian de facto President Boris Chochiyev in Moscow.

The Foreign Ministry reported that Wilshire met with Chochiyev in Moscow April 20 in the de facto South Ossetian Embassy. The meeting was held within preparations for PACE’s spring session where the post-war situation in Georgia should be discussed. In particular, the PACE Monitoring Committee must examine a resolution on the status of the implementation of earlier PACE resolutions.

“Georgia’s Foreign Ministry expresses strong protest in connection with this shocking fact. Georgia fully respects the freedom of parliamentarians, although PACE member Wilshire must act on the status of a co-rapporteur of the assembly and thus represent the whole organization. This is the first time when an official representative of an international organization has met in the embassy of the puppet regime,” the minsitry said in a statement.

“Such actions directly contradict the fundamental principle of international law, that is the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and undermines the status of the Council of Europe, as well as all those PACE resolutions,” the ministry aded. “An evaluation of their implementation was entrusted to the PACE Monitoring Committee. However, this is ignoring the positions of the Council of Europe and country members who have condemned Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region and called on Russia to cancel this illegal and unilateral decision. Moreover, it testifies to the fact that Wilshire has his own, predefined position on the implementation of the PACE resolutions.”

The Foreign Ministry calls on Council of Europe leadership, including member countries, to condemn these actions.