The Head of the Georgian parliamentary delegation to the OSCE PA and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Nikoloz Samkharadze, together with the parliamentary delegation, is participating in the 33rd Annual Session of the OSCE PA.

As part of the session, Nikoloz Samkharadze addressed the meeting of the OSCE PA Committee on Political Affairs and Security.

In his remarks, he spoke about the difficult situation in Georgia's occupied regions and Russia's continued steps towards their annexation.

"First of all, I would like to thank the Rapporteur for the report and for including the issue of the occupation of Georgia's territories by the Russian Federation in the report that we agreed upon in Vienna. This is of great importance, as Georgia has been living under occupation for the past 30 years. In this context, we strongly condemn the so-called Treaty on the Enhancement of Allied Cooperation, signed in May of this year between the Russian Federation and the so-called South Ossetia. This document constitutes a blatant violation of international law and represents yet another desperate attempt by Moscow to consolidate the occupation and facilitate the de facto annexation of territories that are internationally recognised as an integral part of Georgia”, - he stated.

Nikoloz Samkharadze also addressed what he described as numerous factual inaccuracies and unsubstantiated allegations contained in the report prepared under the Moscow Mechanism.

"I would also like to draw your attention to another issue in the report concerning the Moscow Mechanism. I would like to inform the Committee that neither the activation of the Moscow Mechanism nor its conclusions were supported by the majority of OSCE participating States, including the United States, France, Spain, Italy and others. I will not list them all, but 34 participating States neither supported nor endorsed these conclusions. This is a very important fact that should be duly noted”, - Nikoloz Samkharadze stated.

According to him, the report, which was prepared by a single expert within 72 hours, contains numerous factual inconsistencies and allegations.

"Furthermore, the report, prepared by a single expert within 72 hours, contains numerous factual inconsistencies as well as allegations. The expert himself acknowledged that he did not have sufficient time to gather evidence for all of the allegations. Consequently, when the report was discussed at the OSCE Permanent Council, the Government of Georgia also presented its position on the report. Therefore, we cannot regard this report as the ultimate truth, because, as I have already noted, the expert himself admitted that he was unable to collect sufficient evidence to substantiate its findings. Naturally, there are certain recommendations with which we agree, and some of them have already been implemented. Nevertheless, I would like to reiterate that the report contains shortcomings in terms of factual accuracy”, - Nikoloz Samkharadze noted.

The Georgian parliamentary delegation is on an official visit to The Hague, where the 33rd Annual Session of the OSCE PA is being held.

The Georgian Parliamentary Delegation, headed by Nikoloz Samkharadze also includes the Chair of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee, Maia Bitadze, the Chair of the EU Integration Committee, Levan Makhashvili, and Deputy Chair of the parliamentary political group “People's Power”, Eka Sepashvili.