GENEVA. April 8 (Interfax-AVN) - Abkhazia is willing to step up the negotiating process with Georgia on economic issues, but it is not going to discuss its political status, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told Interfax on Friday.
Shamba insisted that there have been no Abkhaz-Georgian negotiations in Geneva. "What is being held now is a meeting of the Group of Friends of the UN Secretary General on Georgia, and the Abkhaz and Georgian sides are merely informing the participants in the meeting about their positions," Shamba said.
"We have made no changes in our foreign policy. We are willing to intensify the negotiating process with Georgia, but only regarding economic issues and the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia's Gali district," Shamba said.
"Aspects of the political status of Abkhazia, which is an independent state, are not subject to any negotiations," he said.
"As long as the sanctions imposed by the CIS countries on Abkhazia in the mid-1990s remain in effect and as long as institutions of the so- called government of the autonomous republic of Abkhazia in exile exist in Tbilisi, we cannot talk about trust between the sides," Shamba said.