13 November 2008, 16:04
Delegations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia invited to Geneva talks
On November 12, Pierre Moreli, Special Representative of the European Union, has officially informed that representatives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were invited to the Geneva consultations on Caucasian security problems as participants of the negotiation process; the talks were scheduled on November 18-19.
On November 11, Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia, reported that negotiations of Republic's leaders with delegates from EU, UN and OSCE brought serious diplomatic advances in favour of the republic.
"They've said that they are ready to officially invite us, which never happened before; earlier, we were invited via Russia. Now they said that there would be eight participants of the process: UN, EU, OSCE, Russia, USA, Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It's OK for us, since it means that we've been recognized as a party in these discussions. There are still certain details to clarify, and once it's done, we'll probably go," said Mr Shamba as quoted by GAZETA.GZT.RU.
Sergey Shamba has added that a number of details are still not coordinated; in particular, the format of participation in the debates of representatives of the so-called "alternative governments" of the two republics who, most likely, will go to Geneva as members of the Georgian delegation; this point will be negotiated further.
The GHN reports that on November 12 in Tskhinvali Special EU Representative Pierre Moreli confirmed that South Ossetia would take part in Geneva negotiations.
