MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Uncertainty surrounding the extension of the mandate of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict area beyond January 1 is seriously complicating peacekeeping efforts being made through both CIS and UN channels.
This statement was made at a meeting between a Russian presidential envoy for settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, First Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin, and the command of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces, which took place in Sukhumi last weekend, reads a Russian Foreign Ministry press release circulated on Monday.
During talks with Abkhaz Prime Minister Gennady Gagulia, Loshchinin once again elaborated on Russia's reasons in favor of holding a new Georgian-Abkhaz meeting on confidence building measures, reads the document.
Russia believes that such a meeting could add a new positive impetus to the solution of a number of practical problems concerning the return of refugees, the prevention of further armed confrontation and the arrangement of economic cooperation between Tbilisi and Sukhumi, it reads.
"Abkhazia has confirmed its interest in Russia's proposals and favors continuing consultations on this issue," reads the press release.
Gagulia in turn again raised the issue of the unsettled conflict in the Kodori Gorge and voiced concerns about Georgia's plans to set up an airfield in the upper part of the gorge in violation of the 1994 cease-fire agreement.