TBILISI, November 23. /TASS/. Georgia’s Foreign Ministry is concerned over the resolution on Russia’s co-operation and strategic partnership with Abkhazia, “an undeniable part of Georgia.” The agreement was adopted by the Russian government on November 20 and then readied for signing by the president.
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said in the statement published on Saturday that “despite constructive steps taken by Georgia’s authorities, progress in relationship with Russia in a political aspect was futile.”
The ministry said that “Russia’s repeated statements about its willingness to return relations with Georgia back to normal evidently contradict its concrete steps.”
“Georgia will never tolerate violation of its territorial integrity and will not accept a compromise,” it said.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry calls on the international community “to give an assessment to this step taken by Russia, aimed at annexation of Georgia’s occupied territories” and “use all available levers so that make Russia avoid any further aggressive activities against Georgia.”
The ministry said that Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili tackled the issue at meetings in the European Council and NATO during his visit to Brussels on November 17-18 as well as Foreign Minister Tamara Beruchashvili who visited London on November 19 and Prague on November 21-22.
Georgia’s foreign ministry pledges that the issue will be raised in the coming week “at a meeting with the diplomatic corps accredited to Georgia and at the meetings of NATO countries’ foreign ministers and OSCE.”
On November 19 Abkhazia’s government approved a new bilateral agreement on co-operation and strategic partnership with Russia and a day later it was adopted by the Russian government.
The draft treaty “is a basic document for establishing closer co-operation between Russia and Abkhazia step by step in the social, economic and humanitarian spheres as well as in foreign policy, defence and security provided Abkhazia’s state sovereignty preserved,” the Russian government said.
Along with this, the document envisages that if one of the sides comes under aggression, “it would be viewed as an aggression /armed attack/ on the other party to the treaty.”
Russia recognized independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008. The two young nations had been de facto independent for the more than fifteen years before that.
The EU and the U.S. continue to insist that the countries are still parts of Georgia.