UN to Chair Talks on Georgia-Abkhazia Peace Process

The United Nations will chair a meeting of interested nations next month to discuss the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process, a UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on November 24.

The UN Secretariat briefed on November 23 the so-called Group of Friends of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the recent contacts Annan’s Special Representative, Heidi Tagliavini, had in Sokhumi, breakaway Abkhazia’s capital, and Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, and discussed the next steps in support of the peace process, Fred Eckhard said.

“The participants expressed their hope for an early resumption of the dialogue between the two sides in order to prevent instability and to build mutual confidence,” he added.

The two-day meeting of representatives of the Friends – comprising France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States – will be held from 13 to 14 December in Geneva.