Tbilisi Committed to Adhering to Current Kodori Policy

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on August 23 that Tbilisi will adhere to its decision to relocate the Abkhaz government-in-exile to Kodori Gorge and rehabilitate the area regardless of the Abkhaz secessionist authorities’ and Moscow?s positions.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the Russian daily Izvestia that Georgia is provoking tensions in the region through its policy with upper Kodori Gorge, which is located in breakaway Abkhazia.

In a response the Georgian Foreign Ministry said that the Abkhaz secessionist authorities? military rhetoric, backed by Russia, ?contribute to stirring tensions and destabilization in the region.?

The Georgian Foreign Ministry also said that it is ?cynical? to claim that Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are the only security guarantees in the conflict zones, as the Russian diplomat told the Izvestia.

The Foreign Ministry added that the monitoring of upper Kodori Gorge ?will start in the nearest future? by the UN observers without the participation of Russian peacekeeping forces.

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