Abkhaz Leader Meets Ambassadors of ‘Group of Friends’

President of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh held talks with the ambassadors of the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends on Georgia – France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – in Sokhumi on August 10, Apsnypress news agency reported.
 
During the talks Bagapsh said that “the Abkhaz side is ready to continue peace talks [with the Georgian side] in the frames of the Geneva process” and discuss economic projects under the Sochi agreement, envisaging the resumption of the railway link via Abkhazia and the return of Georgian internally displaced persons to the Gali district of the breakaway region.
 
The Abkhaz leader also expressed his readiness to discuss foreign investment proposals, adding that currently only Russian businessmen are investing in Abkhazia’s economy.

According to the Apsnypress  outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles said during the meeting that John Tefft, who will replace Miles in a few months, has already been instructed by the U.S. Secretary of State to play a more active role in the Abkhaz peace process.

German Ambassador to Georgia Uwe Schramm urged the Abkhaz leader to release the dozen Georgians who were arrested by Abkhaz militias in July for alleged illegal woodcutting in the unrecognized republic.

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