EU, UN Envoys Visit Sokhumi
Pierre Morel, EU’s special representative for Georgia crisis, and Johan Verbeke, the UN secretary-general’s new special representative to Georgia held talks in Sokhumi on December 10 over the forthcoming Geneva talks scheduled for December 17-18, Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported.
EU and UN, along with OSCE, act as mediators and co-chairs of the Geneva talks.
Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba said that Sokhumi was ready to participate in the Geneva talks. “We are going to actively work over the issues of the meeting’s agenda,” Apsnipress reported quoting Shamba.
The latest meeting, which was held in Geneva on November 18-19, was described by the sides as “positive.”
Apsnipress also reported that Shamba held a separate meeting with Johan Verbeke and discussed the mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). The mandate of the current mission expires in February. Russian and Abkhaz officials say that UN should have a new mission in Abkhazia separate from the one in Georgia.
Meanwhile, the Abkhaz side has also called for resumption of the weekly quadripartite talks known informally as the Chuburkhinji Sessions involving Abkhaz, Georgian and Russian sides, as well as UN observers, Apsnipress reported.
The so-called Chuburkhinji Sessions – which were usually held in the village of Chuburkhinji in the predominantly ethnic Georgian-populated Gali district – have not been held since November 2006.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
