Sokhumi Agrees on Talks with Saakashvili’s Personal Representative

The Abkhaz de facto authorities have stated that they will only agree to the participation of Irakli Alasania, the chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government-in-exile, in the forthcoming Georgian-Abkhaz talks in Geneva in the event that he joins the process as the Personal Representative of the Georgian President and not as a representative of the Abkhaz government-in-exile, the news agency Regnum quotes de facto Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba as saying. 

?The participation of the Chairman of the Tbilisi-based government of Abkhazian Autonomy creates additional difficulties for the Geneva talks, but the Abkhaz side is ready to enter into negotiations with him since Tbilisi presents Alasania as the Personal Representative of President Saakashvili,? Shamba said.

The de facto Foreign Minister said that this does not mean that the Abkhaz side recognizes the ?Tbilisi-based structures of the so-called Abkhazian Autonomy.?

This statement was preceded by a statement by the Georgian President?s Spokesperson, Gela Charkviani, on March 24, who said that the Chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government-in-exile will participate in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks as the Personal Representative of the President of Georgia.

These Georgian-Abkhaz talks, which will take place under the aegis of the UN, will be held in April and will include participants from the UN Secretary General?s ‘Group of Friends for Georgia,’ involving representatives from France, Germany, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States.

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