22:47, 16 February 2007

South Ossetia rejects informal relations with Georgia

Today, the president of South Ossetia has given a press conference in Moscow to Russian journalists. Eduard Kokoity started his presentation with a statement that he thinks it necessary to have a prompt renewal of the negotiating process within the framework of the Mixed Control Commission (MCC).

In Mr. Kokoity's opinion, within the frameworks of the MCC, first of all, it is necessary to run the work of drafting a Memorandum to be signed by presidents of Georgia and South Ossetia on non-restart of military actions and non-application of force.

However, as president Kokoity has informed, Georgia has not yet confirmed its intention to continue the negotiating process in the existing format.

An hour after Kokoity's statement, Merab Antadze, state minister of Georgia for the issues of conflict settlement and MCC co-chairman, has informed that the meeting of MCC's co-chairmen on Georgian-Ossetian settlement will take place in the near future in Istanbul.

Author: Liza Aldatova, CK correspondent