
Abkhaz Foreign Minister Meets UN Envoy
Sergey Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia and UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Georgia, Jean Arnault, held met in Sokhumi on July 4, Apsnipress news agency reported.
Shamba told reporters after the meeting that they had discussed “a new project” – outlined at a meeting of the Group of Friends in Berlin on June 30 – aimed at defusing tensions and facilitating the resumption of talks between Tbilisi and Sokhumi.
The Abkhaz foreign minister, however, gave no further details, instead saying that the Group of Friends would itself unveil the project.
“We have our proposals for a settlement, and they have theirs; all of them should be coordinated, and this is a difficult process,” Shamba said. “Some proposals may be unacceptable, some unrealizable, but we cannot stop [discussions]. In any case, we should continue looking for ways to settle problems diplomatically.”