Russia and Georgia resumed talks in Geneva Tuesday on security arrangements in the wake of their conflict last year, the U.N. said, two months after they failed to wrap up an agreement.
The latest meeting, which is due to last two days, was being held under the joint auspices of the U.N., the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
A U.N. spokeswoman confirmed it had got underway with all sides present.
U.N. special representative to Georgia Johan Verbeke said shortly after the last meeting in December that the Russians and Georgians had moved closer to a deal, in contrast to the fragile start to the talks a couple of months beforehand.
Verbeke said only two out of the ten issues on the table, related to a mechanism to prevent and resolve security incidents, still needed to be resolved.
However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin has described those issues as "obstacles," while acknowledging an improved climate of understanding in the talks.
A first attempt at dialogue last October collapsed when Russian and Georgian delegates failed to even sit down in the same room. A month later they accepted informal sessions, allowing the presence of representatives from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed breakaway regions which were at the center of the conflict last August.