On October 9, the de facto foreign minister of occupied Abkhazia, Sergei Shamba, stated in a meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions that Abkhazia would welcome Georgia’s apology as a first step towards reconciliation.
Sergei Shamba thus responded to the ruling Georgian Dream founder and Honorary Chair Bidzina Ivanishvili’s statement which blamed the 2008 war on the “external forces” and the Georgian government of the time. Ivanishvili said the Georgian people “will find it in themselves to apologize.” De-facto Sokhumi authorities previously welcomed the statement “if it is supported with real steps,” while the occupation regime in Tskhinvali linked it to Georgia’s upcoming Parliamentary elections.
Shamba also stressed the need for Georgia to refrain from formulations that are not conducive to the settlement of relations, such as referring to Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as “occupied territories”. Shamba emphasized that the political status of Abkhazia “is not up for discussion.”
According to him, the most important issues on the agenda of the Geneva talks for the Abkhazian side are “the non-resumption of hostilities and the signing of a peace agreement” between the occupied region and Tbilisi.
According to the so-called Abkhaz foreign ministry the issue of resuming meetings within the framework of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) in Gali was also discussed during the meeting.
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