ERGNETI, 22 October 2026 – The 135th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting took place today in Ergneti. The meeting was co-facilitated by Bettina Patricia Boughani, Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Christoph Späti, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus.
The EUMM and OSCE co-facilitators welcomed the continued commitment of all participants to the IPRM format and reiterated its importance as a practical platform for addressing security developments and matters impacting conflict-affected communities on both sides of the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL).
Participants discussed security developments, focusing on human security and the freedom of movement for conflict-affected populations on both sides of the ABL. In this regard, detention cases remained an important part of the discussions. The co-facilitators welcomed the recent release of detainees, and at the same time they reiterated their concern over the continued practice of detentions. They called for continued efforts to resolving all existing cases and encouraged the timely exchange of information. All cases were discussed in detail.
Co-facilitators welcomed the changes to the crossing regime introduced at the beginning of September. But they called upon the participants to work towards the full reopening of the crossing points. They underlined the importance of freedom of movement for the daily lives, livelihoods and well-being of women, men and children living in the vicinity of the ABL.
All participants underlined the key role of the EUMM-managed Hotline for the timely exchange of information on a wide range of range of security and humanitarian issues, including detentions and facilitating crossings on humanitarian grounds.
The participants agreed to hold the next regular IPRM meeting on 15 December.
