Russia-Georgia relations won't benefit from UNSC consultations - Russian mission
NEW YORK (UN). Aug 9 (Interfax) - The United Kingdom, France, and the United States, which initiated the UN Security Council's closed-door consultations on Georgia on Wednesday, are probably trying to undermine relations between Russia and Georgia, which have been improving, according to Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov.
"The Geneva process began in line with the settlement principles that were elaborated by the presidents of France and Russia, and international consultations are being held to further it by Russia, the United States, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and other parties, alongside the process of normalizing and improving Russian-Georgian relations. So one of my ideas is that among other things, the initiators of that meeting wanted to undermine the process of the improvement and normalization of relations between Russia and Georgia," Safronkov told the press after the UN Security Council's consultations on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.
"The meeting is over, and our work will continue together with Tbilisi and international partners in Geneva," he said.
The very fact of the meeting "was wrong, because Georgia was removed from the UN Security Council's agenda back in 2009," Safronkov said.
The initiators of the closed-door consultations "decided to observe the 10th anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war that never happened," he said.
"A probable reason is that somebody wants to continue the confrontation," Safronkov said.
Many UN representatives and speakers at the UN Security Council's meeting "noted the importance of the Geneva consultations for stabilizing the situation," he said.