TSKHINVAL. March 12 (Interfax) - South Ossetia is ready to work constructively as part of the Geneva Discussions on the situation in the South Caucasus and expects that its suggestions during the drafting of a document on the non-use of force will have a positive impact on the process of negotiations, South Ossetian Presidential Representative for the Post-Conflict Settlement Murat Dzhioyev said.
"South Ossetia has always expressed readiness to work constructively as part of the Geneva Discussions and counts on all tasks set before the participants of the discussions to be carried out for the benefit of the local population," Dzhioyev said at a meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva format in Tskhinval on Tuesday.
The South Ossetian side expects that its suggestions as part of the Geneva Discussions, first and foremost, regarding the issues related to the drafting of a legally binding document on the non-use of force, would enable yielding a positive result, he said.
Geneva format co-chair from the European Union, Toivo Klaar, for his part, raised at the meeting the issue of the closed checkpoints on the South Ossetian border due to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus in Georgia. He said that the closure of the border is not a solution to the problem. In this regard, the mechanisms that the parties have at their disposal were used insufficiently, Klaar said.
Dzhioyev said that it was a temporary measure that paid off.
"The measures to close down the border fully paid off and were efficient. Neither measles, nor swine flu got here. Another thing is that the Georgian authorities tried to use even this situation for their propaganda purposes, drawing attention of international organizations," he said.
South Ossetia daily monitored the situation surrounding the virus and following this monitoring, on Monday, the South Ossetian Security Council decided it would be appropriate to resume operations of the checkpoints on the border with Georgia from March 15, he said.
At talks in Tskhinval, representatives of South Ossetia offered their condolences to United Nations representative Cihan Sultanoglu over the tragedy in Ethiopia, in which UN employees had been killed.
"We offer our condolences to the people of Ethiopia and all countries, whose citizens were killed in this accident," Dzhioyev said.
On Tuesday, the co-chairs of the Geneva Discussions on Security in the South Caucasus, - Klaar (EU), Rudolph Michalka (OSCE), and Sultanoglu (UN), - arrived on a one-day working visit to Tskhinval to discuss the program of the next round of the Geneva Discussions slated for April 2-3.
The Geneva Discussions on Security and Stability in the South Caucasus have been taking place with participation of Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Georgia and the United States through the mediation of special representatives from the UN, the EU, and the OSCE since 2008. Two working groups, on security and humanitarian affairs, are active. The last round of the discussions took place on December 11-12, 2018.