Tbilisi Plays Down Cooperation of Secessionist Leaders

Eduard Kokoity (left) and Sergey Bagapsh at the latter’s inauguration in Sokhumi. February, 2005. The Kommersant photo.

The signing of a communique on cooperation between the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which the sides say will soon grow into a comprehensive agreement on cooperation, was downplayed by Tbilisi as “not serious.”

The Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – Sergey Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, respectively – met in the Abkhaz Black Sea town of Gagra on July 26 and discussed cooperation, as the sides stated, in all sectors of bilateral relations, including military and economic. The joint communique was signed as a result of this meeting.

Sergey Bagapsh said at a news conference after the signing of the communique that a comprehensive agreement between the two unrecognized republics will be signed in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali in “the immediate future,” the Abkhaz news agency Apsnypress reported.