Russian, German Foreign Ministers Discuss Abkhazia
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the phone on July 15 to discuss the Abkhaz conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
During the conversation, which was held on the initiative of the German side, the Russian foreign minister said a treaty on the non-use of force and the withdrawal of Georgian troops from upper Kodori Gorge were needed to de-escalate the situation in the region.
On the same day Hans-Dieter Lukas, special envoy of the German Foreign Ministry for Eastern Europe, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin in Moscow. Before going to Moscow the German diplomat visited Tbilisi and Sokhumi.
Germany has proposed a so-called three-stage plan for Abkhaz conflict settlement. Steinmeier was reportedly personally engaged in the discussion of the plan when diplomats from the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends on Georgia met in Berlin on June 30.
Lukas visited Sokhumi on July 14 and presented the plan to the Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh.
Bagapsh said later on the same day: “we can not consider it, such as it was presented today.”
The Group of Friends includes France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S. Russia did not take part in the development of the plan and it still has not publicly made its position known on the plan.
