Belarus-Abkhazia: interaction without recognition

Deputies of Belarus in Abkhazia

On November 2 a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia arrived in Abkhazia. They met with their counterparts from the People’s Assembly of Abkhazia and talked about the need to forge closer relations in the Russia-Belarus-Abkhazia triangle.

Afterward the President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhaniya met with the deputies. “Issues of economic development are very important to us. The President of Belarus recently visited, we have outlined certain steps and we hope that there will be even more of them. We want to live in peace, we want to create,” Bzhaniya said at the meeting.

• “Lukashenko strengthens relations with Abkhazia, but does not want to recognize it” – commentary
• “For Lukashenka it was a sad trip” – Georgian experts on his visit to Abkhazia
• Dual citizenship in Abkhazia: not a luxury, but a means of transportation
• “343 hectares in exchange for 11 Russian tanks” – Abkhazian opposition counting on parliament

In the Abkhazian expert community, no one took the visit of the Belarusian deputies as anything sensational. (The sensation occurred in September, when President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko visited Abkhazia.) And the deputies of Belarus in Abkhazia are perceived as nothing more than a familiarization visit; no one expects any important issues to be resolved, nor is there any suggestion of a special mission.

The vector of relations with Belarus was determined in September by Alexander Lukashenko — close relations but without recognition, at least for now.

If approaches in this aspect change and Minsk decides on recognition, Lukashenko will be the first to announce it. He will not send deputies or anyone else to Abkhazia in advance with this message.

In addition, he will certainly not be in a hurry to recognize Abkhazia. The current situation – “interaction without recognition” – suits him perfectly.

In terms of foreign policy it does not threaten him with anything — not even a severance of relations with Georgia. In economic terms there are pluses, albeit small — the Abkhaz market with numerous Russian tourists will open to the full extent to Belarusian products.

Terms, place names, opinions and ideas suggested by the author of the publication are their own and do not necessarily coincide with the opinions and ideas of JAMnews or its individual employees. JAMnews reserves the right to remove comments on posts that are deemed offensive, threatening, violent or otherwise ethically unacceptable.