German Foreign Minister to Visit Tbilisi, Sokhumi
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, will pay a working visit to Georgia on July 17-18, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
On July 17 he will meet President Saakashvili, Parliamentary Chairman Davit Bakradze, Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili and State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili.
He will also meet opposition leaders, according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
On July 18 Steinmeier will visit Sokhumi and hold talks with the Abkhaz leadership.
After visiting Georgia, the German Foreign Minister will also travel to Russia and meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
The German foreign minister spoke with Lavrov on the phone on July 15 to discuss the Abkhaz conflict.
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.
Hans-Dieter Lukas, special envoy of the German Foreign Ministry for Eastern Europe, 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.
