The situation along Georgia’s borders with its break-away regions of South Ossetia and Abchazia is not entirely calm. Slovak representatives of the EU’s monitoring mission have registered occasional incidents. On Tuesday, the leaders of the mission also informed Slovak President Andrej Kiska, who is on an official visit to the Republic of Georgia, about the current situation on the territory which broke away from Georgia following a brief war with Russia in 2008.

“I went to look at the border created by the Russians, who seized part of the Georgian territory of South Ossetia. They built a barbed-wire fence and divided people. We maintain a clear stance, which is that any such violation of territorial rights is aggression. It amounts to seizure of territory,” Andrej Kiska said.

The presidents of Slovakia and Georgia spoke at the border with people including a pensioner who has a sick wife and wanted to call for medical assistance, but was not let through the fence. “In this modern era, such an approach is tragic. It is very important to realise what exactly Russia is managing to accomplish with its neighbours,” Kiska said.

The monitoring mission is being participated in by individual EU member states, and their responsibility is to monitor the compliance with agreements to which Georgia, the Russian Government and break-away republics are party, the aim of which is to preserve peace and prevent the continuation of conflict.

In 2008 Georgia and Russia had a five-day war, which ended with declarations of independence by South Ossetia and Abchazia. Only Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru, however, recognised their independence. Other countries consider South Ossetia and Abchazia to be part of Georgia.