Meeting on incidents prevention to be held in Gali, Abkhazia

SUKHUM, July 14 (Itar-Tass) - The five-sided meeting of experts from
Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the UN and EU on the prevention of incidents in
the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict will be held in the Abkhazian
city Gali on Tuesday. The related agreement was reached at the Geneva
discussions in the Caucasus held on July 1.
Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said that it will be "a test
five-sided meeting that will focus on discussion of the possibilities of
the settlement of the situation and efficient use of these mechanisms."
According to the minister, the coordinated during the Geneva
discussions five-sided format envisages the participation of all sides
engaged in this region in security issues: Abkhazia, Russia, Georgia, EU
under the UN auspices.
Shamba told reporters earlier that Abkhazia seeks not to isolate
itself from the whole world, but to develop contacts with the world
community, and "all the more with such global organization as the United
Nations." According to him, Abkhazia's participation in the Geneva process
and other international projects "is a major element of its recognition
and a possibility to show its efficiency." "It is on this impression that
the attitude to a country is based. That is why our task is to develop
contacts with the world instead of breaking them," he summed up.
The foreign minister noted that Sukhum had put forward just demands
for the continuation of UN mission's activity in the republic, coming out
against politicising that process with statements that Abkhazia is part of
Georgia.
Within that context he reminded reporters that it was with such
statements that the UN mission began its work in the republic. "However,
it all ended with a report of the UN secretary-general which did not say
that Abkhazia is part of Georgia, and this is big progress," he stressed.
Shamba emphasized that when a new mandate of the UN mission was
discussed, Abkhazia was against seeing in it even a hint at old statements
from old resolutions. "That is why, asserting our interests on the
international arena, our partner Russia vetoed a decision of the U.N.
Security Council to extend the mandate," Shamba said. However, he pledged
that Abkhazia "is not interested in breaking relations with the United
Nations, and will look for new opportunities for new formats of
cooperation."
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