SUKHUMI. Nov 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The UN secretary general's envoy to Georgia Johan Verbeke said at a meeting with Abkhazia's Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba that he plans to discuss issues related to Abkhaz officials' participation in Geneva talks, which are scheduled to take place in the second half of November.
The UN mission's mandate expires in February 2009, and suggestions regarding the mission's new mandate should arrive in New York before December 15, Verbeke said.
Shamba, for his part, said that Abkhazia is interested in the UN's further mission in the republic.
"If we take part in consultations in Geneva, this issue can be solved there because it has been placed on the agenda. But if we do not participate, this issue will be tackled in the previous format through coordinating the UN mission's new mandate with the Georgian party, the UN and other participants in the negotiating process," the Abkhaz minister said.
"We hope to find a form to continue the UN's mission in Abkhazia," he said.
The UN Observer Mission in Georgia entered the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone in 1993 to oversee the implementation of the Moscow ceasefire agreement.
The Abkhaz Foreign Ministry believes that the mission's mandate should be revised after Russia recognized Abkhazia as an independent state, the CIS peacekeeping forces left the republic and Georgia refused to honor the Moscow agreement.