Shamba: Abkhazia Ready to Discuss Economic Issues with Georgia

Foreign Minister of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba, who represents the Abkhaz side at the UN-led Georgian-Abkhaz talks in Geneva, said on April 8 that Abkhazia is ready to initiate the process of negotiations with Georgia over economic issues; however, the Foreign Minister emphasized the fact that the political status of the breakaway region will not top the agenda of the Geneva talks. 

?Georgian-Abkhaz talks are not currently taking place in Geneva. The UN Secretary General?s Group of Friends for Georgia is discussing the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process there and the Abkhaz and Georgian sides are simply briefing the participants on their positions,? Interfax quotes Sergey Shamba as saying.

Two-day, UN-sponsored talks on the Georgian-Abkhazian peace process were launched in Geneva on April 7 and participants from the UN Secretary General?s Group of Friends for Georgia, including France, Germany, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States, were in attendence.

Reportedly, the issues of returning refugees to Abkhazia, opening a United Nations human rights mission in the Gali district of Abkhazia and economic rehabilitation projects are all being discussed.  

The latest meeting of this kind was held last December; however neither Georgian nor Abkhaz delegations participated in the talks, due to the political crisis in the breakaway region.
 

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