Presidents of Georgia, Belarus discuss situation in Abkhazia, Tskhinvali region

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili worries that international observers lack access to Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

Margvelashvili brought this issue up with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk today, where he is on an official state visit.

Margvelashvili mentioned that even the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) has been unable to enter the occupied regions despite their mandate. As a result, they have been unable to investigate human rights violations on the Russian-occupied side of the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between Georgia and its breakaway regions.

Diplomatic relations between Georgia and Belarus were established in January 1994. Photo by President's press office

A serious reaction from the international community against Russia’s "illegal actions” will help to avoid Russia’s attempts to annex more of Georgian territory, he further added.

Following the Georgia-Russia military armed conflict in 2008, the European Union (EU) developed a policy of engagement but non-recognition with the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali.

The policy aims at "opening a political and legal space in which the EU can interact with the separatist regions without compromising its commitment to Georgia’s territorial integrity”.

As of today, only four countries recognise Georgia’s breakaway regions as independent republics; these are Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru.