Abkhaz Side Boycotts Talks in Tbilisi

Foreign Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Shamba said he will not participate in UN-sponsored talks scheduled for July 22 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

In a phone interview with Tbilisi-based Imedi television Shamba cited the Georgian side?s failure to hand over cargo ? mainly construction materials, which was confiscated by the Georgian coast guard on July 3 after seizing a Turkish vessel en route to Abkhazia.

?We were promised that the cargo would have been handed over on Thursday, but it has not happened yet. We can not hold talks on the background of this kind of incident,? Sergey Shamba said.

Despite this refusal of the Abkhaz side, talks in frames of the so-called Geneva will anyway take place in Tbilisi with the participation of the Georgian side and representatives of Georgia?s Group of Friends of the Secretary-General, involving France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. UN Secretary-General?s Special Representatives in Georgia Heidi Tagliavini will also participate in talks.

Security measures, as well as issues related with the return of Georgian internally displaced persons in Abkhazia are planned to discuss during the meeting.

Initially these talks in Tbilisi were scheduled for July 20, but were postponed for Friday, as the Abkhaz side failed to arrive in the Georgian capital citing technical problems.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)