Thank you, Madame Chairperson.

The United States welcomes Ambassador Lacombe, Ambassador Tagliavini, and Ambassador Mayerhofer to the Permanent Council. We thank them for their outstanding work. We also would like to express our appreciation for the highly effective work done by the Mission in Georgia.

With regard to the situation in South Ossetia, we agree with Ambassador Lacombe that we must preserve and build on the progress achieved by experts’ agreement in Baden.

We welcome the fact that the political dialogue among the parties will continue, both in Moscow and here in Vienna. We join Ambassador Lacombe in the hope that the new and evolving format of these talks will give them a new dynamism.

My Government would like to emphasize the importance of maintaining and intensifying this dialogue, and call upon all sides and outside actors to renew their efforts to resolve the conflict.

In addition, the international community should be prepared to play a role in helping to implement a political settlement.

We also welcome the news that a joint UN/OSCE expert fact-finding mission is currently being prepared to visit Abkhazia.

Such a mission – called for by our Heads of State and Government at the Istanbul Summit – would provide a basis for increased international support for the unconditional and safe return of refugees and internally displaced persons.

We reaffirm our full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.

In this context, we commend the efforts of the Border Monitoring Operation, which has made a significant contribution to the stability of the region.

We join others in welcoming withdrawals of Russian military equipment made over the past few months. We look forward to further reductions and call for the full and prompt implementation of the commitments made at Istanbul in this regard.

We strongly support the voluntary fund to assist in decommissioning and withdrawal of Russian military equipment, we thank the States that have contributed to this fund and urge others to do so.

Thank you. Madame Chairperson.