U.S. Tries to Arrange Abkhaz Talks

Mathew Bryza, the U.S. deputy assistance secretary of state, who will visit Tbilisi and Sokhumi on July 25, will try to convince the sides to hold a meeting in Berlin next week with the participation of the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends.

“It’s our aspiration. I don’t know if it’s going to happen,” Bryza said in an interview with Reuters in Brussels on July 24. “I’m on my way to Tbilisi and Sukhumi to see if we can convince them to come together.”

“All of us in the international community need to make clear to Russia that it really has gone too far,” he continued. “It has taken steps that are deeply provocative and have led to some people in Georgia calculating that their only way forward is through escalation, and that is a path that cannot succeed.”

Sokhumi says it will resume talks with Tbilisi if it agrees to pull out troops from upper Kodori Gorge and sign a treaty on the non-use of force.

Moscow holds a similar position, saying that the Abkhaz demands need to be met before the peace process can move forward.

In an interview with the RFE/RL Georgian service earlier this week, Bryza, however, said the resumption of direct talks between Sokhumi and Tbilisi without preconditions was essential for de-escalation.

“We are still going to do everything we possibly can to get the Abkhaz and the Georgians to be able to talk face to face with no restrictions and no preconditions,” he said.