Bagapsh Rules Out Direct Talks with Tbilisi

Sergey Bagapsh, the Abkhaz leader, reiterated on July 31 that Sokhumi would not engage in direct talks with Tbilisi.

He told RIA Novosti news agency that the Abkhaz side was ready to meet with the Group of Friends in Berlin, sometime between August 15 and August 20.

Bagapsh, however, also reiterated that such a meeting would not mean direct talks with Tbilisi, as he would only attend if the Group held separate meetings with the Georgian and Abkhaz sides.

Bagapsh said that Sokhumi would push two major issues at the meeting: the withdrawal of Georgian forces from the upper Kodori Gorge and the signing of a non-use of force treaty.

The German Foreign Ministry said on July 30 that although proposed Abkhaz talks in Berlin this week had not materialised, Germany was continuing efforts to arrange a meeting between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides. No date has been set, Jens Ploetner, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman, said.

The dates for a meeting proposed by the Abkhaz side, however, have not been welcomed by Tbilisi. Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said August, as well as early September, was unacceptable because of a tight schedule.