"I think it was a very important session, which can be considered as a breakthrough in the resolution process," Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Georgy Khaindrava said in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia separated from Georgia's secessionist province by the North Caucasus mountain range.
The Joint Control Commission (JCC), which is meeting March 27-28, agreed to hold its next meeting in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, in late April.
The JCC comprises representatives of Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia and North Ossetia.
Khaindrava said that although the parties failed to agree on a number of issues, such as the peace settlement initiatives of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, they were not irresolvable problems.
A bloody conflict broke out in 1991 after South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements between the sides, and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since. The South Ossetian authorities want to rejoin North Ossetia, although the two regions were separate administrative entities in the Soviet era and were separated further after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
