TBILISI. Jan 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The administration of Georgian Minister without Portfolio Malkhaz Kakabadze will be assigned the mission to conduct talks with authorities of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia starting from February 1.
"My ministry will be responsible for further talks with the South Ossetian party starting from February 1," Kakabadze told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
That is why "the administration of the Georgian presidential envoy for settlement of consequences of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict is reassigned to the minister without portfolio's administration starting from February 1 as well," he said.
"We expect the reassignment to boost efficiency of the negotiating process and eliminate parallelism," Kakabadze stressed.
According to him, Georgia is currently engaged in consultations with the OSCE in order to promote peaceful settlement.
"In its turn, the OSCE is contacting the Ossetian party," the minister said.
It is not yet decided who will replace Irakly Machavariani as co-chairman of the Mixed Control Commission on the Georgian- Ossetian conflict settlement on behalf of Georgia, Kakabadze noted. Machavariani resigned a few weeks ago.