PM Gakharia meets with EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, January 26

Co-Chair of the Geneva International Discussions and EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar and the Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia.

Recently, Georgia has won the 2008 Russo-Georgia war case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Yesterday, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia met with Toivo Klaar, Co-Chair of the Geneva International Discussions and EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia. According to the press service of the government administration, the latest regional security changes and related challenges were discussed during the meeting.

Gakharia noted at the meeting that the recent changes in the Caucasus region further aggravates challenges occurring in the occupied territories “making it more important for the government of Georgia to coordinate an effective unified vision and policy toward the occupied territories.”

According to the official statement, the meeting underlined the importance of the recent judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the 2008 Russo-Georgia war case and the need to use it in the country's de-occupation process. For the record, Georgia has recently won the case against Russia in the ECHR. According to the judgment delivered by the Strasbourg-based court, Russia was responsible for the breach of six articles of the European Convention of Human Rights during the conflict. The court said that Kremlin is guilty of the torture of Georgian prisoners of war and the expulsion of Georgian villagers from their homes in South Ossetia.

During the meeting, the conversation also focused on the security situation in the occupied regions and nearby territories and the humanitarian problems created as a result of restriction on freedom of movement by the Russian occupation forces. The need to boost the incident prevention and response mechanism meetings and the platform of the Geneva International Discussions was also stressed at the meeting.

According to the PM of Georgia, the challenges concerning the occupied territories are a national security-level problem, which, apart from the implementation of a unified, coordinated policy by the Government of Georgia, also requires active and direct involvement from the EU and other strategic partners.

Gakharia thanked Klaar for the EU’s engagement in the peaceful conflict-resolution process and the objective international monitoring carried out by the EU Monitoring Mission in the territories along the occupation lines.