The participants have just concluded the thirty-third round of the Geneva International Discussions. The deliberations were constructive and substantive. The Co-Chairs were encouraged to see frank and open exchanges taking place despite persistent diverging views.

In Working Group I, the participants discussed security-related issues and assessed the overall situation on the ground as relatively calm and stable. The participants continued to exchange views on the non-use of force, threat perceptions, as well as freedom of movement. Experts met again to work on a draft joint statement by all participants on non-use of force. The participants welcomed the continued good cooperation in the meetings of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) in Ergneti and urged for the resumption of the Gali IPRM.

In Working Group II, the participants reviewed a number of key topics relating to the humanitarian situation on the ground. Among others, they substantively discussed issues relating to multilingual education and languages of instruction in Gali schools, freedom of movement and mobility, missing persons, environmental and cultural heritage. The issue of IDPs and refugees was also raised. In this regard, the Co-Chairs reiterated their appeal to participants to engage constructively on all agenda items in the future.

The participants agreed to hold their next round on 8-9 December 2015.