NATO activities in Georgia pose “a serious threat” of destabilization in the South Caucasus and to the security of the Russian Federation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said at his meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions on September 26.

According to the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Karasin told the OSCE and UN diplomats that “NATO’s increasingly active role in the region” was dangerous. 

“The Alliance’s military infrastructure is expanding in Georgia, military exercises are held regularly, with their scale increasing every year, and NATO standards for the armed forces and their management are being introduced,” he noted, claiming that this posed “serious threat of destabilization in the South Caucasus and to the security of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia.”

The Deputy Foreign Minister added that “in this context” the need for reaching legally binding agreements on the non-use of force between Sokhumi and Tskhinvali on the one hand and Tbilisi on the other “is becoming more acute.”

Co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions from OSCE and UN, Gunther Bachler and Antti Turunen, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin to exchange views on the preparations for the new round of talks in Geneva, scheduled for October 10-11.