VIENNA, Sept 18: Talks on sending more monitors to Georgia have broken down because of disputes with Russia on where they should be deployed, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Thursday.

“We don’t see the point of continuing negotiations in Vienna at this stage. They have been put on hold. The area of responsibility for monitors is the main sticking point,” said Antti Turunen of Finland, currently chairing the policymaking Permanent Council of the 56-nation OSCE.

Georgia’s OSCE envoy blamed Russia’s refusal to let monitors into breakaway South Ossetia and Moscow’s demand that local authorities should decide the future OSCE mandate because it now considers the region “independent”.

Russia’s envoy said South Ossetia was loath to let monitors back in because, it said, they had failed to alert them to Georgia’s offensive to wrest back the region, and so they should be stationed in territory “from which the aggression came”.

Russian forces drove deep into Georgia in August after repelling an attempt by Tbilisi to retake separatist South Ossetia. Moscow then recognised South Ossetia and separatist region Abkhazia as independent states.

No country except Nicaragua has followed suit.

The OSCE, Europe’s largest security and human rights group, agreed in principle last month to send 100 unarmed military monitors to the area and 20 were deployed right after the war.

But talks since then on securing a right of access to separatist territory dragged on inconclusively until Wednesday.

OSCE spokesman Martin Nesirky said there would be no more talks “for the time being” as consensus looked out of reach.—Reuters