Abkhazia, Georgia exchange demands at 5-side meeting

A meeting was held as part of a mechanism for joint incident prevention and response with participation of Abkhazian, Georgian, Russian sides, and also representatives of the EU and the UN on Jan. 20 in Gali near Abkhazian-Georgian borde.

The chairman was Marco Bianchini for the first time.

At these meetings he substituted Johan Verbeke, the UN Secretary General's special envoy, who left in end 2009, and has no appointed successor so far.

The sides agreed to hold meetings every three weeks before the permanent envoy is appointed.

The Abkhazian side again raised issue of incident with BUKET vessel, captured by Georgian border guards, and demanded return of both the ship and the cargo. They do not intend to remove the issue from agenda until it is solved.

The Georgian side expressed anxiety over restrictions of crossing the border on Inguri river, and, in particular, the recent detention of schoolchildren.

Ruslan Kishmaria, President's plenipotentiary in Gali region, explained that schoolchildren can easily cross the border at checkpoints.

Marco Bianchini mentioned the meeting was held on very constructive level.

He believes that a good basis for further work was established.

/Georgia Times/