Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

As Georgia’s Foreign Ministry office says, Georgia’s chairmanship of the CoE Committee of Ministers and the difficult situation in Georgia’s occupied territories were main topics of discussions during the meeting.

The sides expressed their concern over the ongoing processes across the occupation line that further aggravate the security situation on the ground and call for concerted efforts of the parties concerned in order to avoid further escalation of the situation. In this light, the sides reaffirmed their commitment to use all formats at their disposal to achieve peaceful resolution of the conflict. The need to adopt an integrated and analysis-based approach to solving the problem was also highlighted during the meeting.

Zalkaliani thanked the CoE Secretary General for putting on top of the CoE agenda the Russia-Georgia conflict and the difficult humanitarian situation in the occupied regions, as well as for the Secretary General’s regular reports.

Marija Pejčinović Burić welcomed Georgia’s forcoming chairmanship of the CoE Committee of Ministers. According to the Georgian delegation, Georgia’s chairmanship will be oriented towards strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Georgia is due to take over chairmanship of the CoE Committee of Ministers from France for 6 months in November 2019.