Georgia and Russia resumed security talks yesterday after international mediators and a UN report helped nudge Moscow’s negotiators back to the table, officials said.
“They have started,” a UN spokeswoman in Geneva said shortly after the closed-door talks resumed.
Delegations from Russia and the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia had withdrawn from the two-day talks in Geneva on Monday citing the refusal of another Moscow-backed rebel region, Abkhazia, to attend, due to a delay in the UN report.
In the report on the UN mission in Abkhazia, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said tensions between Georgia and Russia were weighing heavily on the region and that talks to date “have helped to maintain a relative calm” there.
It cites the official title of “United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia” but otherwise skates round the sensitive question of whether Abkhazia is part of Georgia or not.
“I hope that these efforts can lead to the establishment of a more stable security regime in the area,” Ban said.
It is the fifth session of talks between Russia and Georgia since September following their brief war in August over South Ossetia.
Tensions remain around areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the UN deploys 129 military observers and 16 police officers in Abkhazia.
Ban’s report recommended that security zones with no armed forces or military equipment be enforced for 12km on both sides of the ceasefire line, and restricted zones with no heavy military equipment for another 12km on each side.
He also called for regular meetings between Russian and Georgian officials to maintain calm and stability.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
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