SUKHUMI. Oct 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The breakaway Abkhaz Republic refuses to begin talks with Georgia until troops are withdrawn from the upper Kodori Gorge, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"Dialogue with Tbilisi is out of the question before the upper Kodori Gorge is fully demilitarized," Shamba said.
"It makes no sense to hold new sessions of the working group on security issues under the UN Coordination Council for the Georgian-Abkhaz settlement until Tbilisi stops maintaining about 1,000 armed border guards and reservists of the National Guard in violation of all agreements," the minister noted.
According to him, the Abkhaz administration has officially notified Tbilisi that "there is no need in ineffective meetings."
Shamba also said that "we do not have the slightest surety that Tbilisi will implement its obligations without the opening of permanent posts of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone in the upper Kodori Gorge."
At the same time, "Sukhumi is not planning complete withdrawal from the negotiating process," the minister said. "A working group of the UN Coordination Council on social and economic matters will take place in the Abkhaz capital in early November," he noted.