Co-Chairs of Geneva Discussions Refused Entry to Occupied Abkhazia
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Based on the information of 'Ekho Kavkaza', the so-called Minister of Foreign Affairs Inal Ardzinba stated that Occupied Abkhazia refused entry to the co-chairs of the Geneva discussion on security and stability in the South Caucasus.
According to him, the decision is related to the postponement of the 57th round of Geneva discussions. It was planned to be held on February 21-22, 2023.
"Recently, this is not the first time that the co-chairs, without any objective reasons and without agreement with the participants in the negotiation process, make unilateral decisions to cancel or postpone the round. Only one of the four meetings planned for 2022 took place.
We see a similar picture at the beginning of this year when the co-chairs unilaterally decide to postpone the next round.
Our point of departure is that such actions of the co-chairs are biased, hinder the work of this important international format of negotiations, and create additional threats to stability in the region.
Taking into account the cancellation of the round of negotiations planned for February 2023, the Abkhaz side decided to refuse entry to the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia for the delegation of the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, which was going to visit on February 8-9 to hold meetings with the officials of the Republic of Abkhazia," Ardzinba said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the Western representatives participating in the Geneva talks recently, saying that the European Union, the United Nations, the OSCE, and the United States are trying to hold this dialogue format to turn the events surrounding Ukraine into a 'hostage'.
