Abkhazia refuses entry to co-chairs of Geneva discussions

Abkhazia and the Geneva discussions

Abkhazia has declared that it will not let in the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions, who planned to visit on February 8-9 to hold meetings with officials of the republic.

This was a response to the cancellation of the next round of Georgian-Abkhazian negotiations. But experts believe that this is a kind of “sacrifice” in deference to Russia.

The Geneva International Discussions (GID) were created in October 2008 after the August war between Georgia and Russia. There are three co-chairs — representatives of the European Union, the UN and the OSCE.

The 57th meeting of the forum, on Stability and Security in the South Caucasus, was scheduled for February 21-22, but on January 31 it was announced that it would be postponed to April. Why the negotiations were then cancelled was not publicly reported, although it is possible that participants in the discussions were informed behind the scenes about the reasons for the postponement.

The authorities of Abkhazia were extremely dissatisfied with this decision.

“This is not the first case of the co-chairs making a unilateral decision to cancel or postpone the meeting without any objective reason nor agreement with the participants. In 2022, out of four planned meetings, only one took place,” Inal Ardzinba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, said in a special statement.

Ardzinba believes that “such actions are biased and […] create additional threats to stability in the region.”

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Comment

Inal Khashig, editor of JAMnews in Abkhazia / editor-in-chief of Chegemskaya Pravda

“Wishing for negotiations and then refusing entry to the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions because the next round of negotiations was canceled is not a very logical decision. Just the visit of a high delegation, including representatives of the UN, the European Union and the OSCE, Sukhum could use to convince international mediators not to cancel the meeting in Geneva, and once again show their desire to resolve the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict at the negotiating table.

There are two theories about what prompted the authorities to take this step.

Optimistic theory: Sukhum decided to raise the stakes in order to somehow cheer up the stalled negotiation process and thereby return the discussions to their usual course. That is, to blackmail a little for the benefit of the negotiation process.

Pessimistic theory: The authorities, taking advantage of the cancellation, are gradually curtailing their participation in the Geneva negotiations.

Perhaps the mediating role of the European Union and the OSCE in resolving the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict no longer suits Abkhazia owing to the confrontation between Russia and the collective West.

And in order to confirm its relations with Moscow, Abkhazia is sacrificing Geneva, the only international platform in which it could make itself known at a high level.

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