Georgian envoy to Russia raises territories issues at meeting with Russian deputy FM

Georgian Special Envoy to Russia Zurab Abashidze has raised current problems in the two occupied regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) during his meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin in Prague yesterday.

This move is noteworthy given that political issues have not been on the agenda of the Abashidze-Karasin meetings since 2012.

Despite the fact the meetings are never about security and other issues related to the country’s territorial problems, at the beginning of the meeting Abashidze spoke about the severe humanitarian situation in the occupied regions of Georgia and the violation of human rights there. He made examples of the violations of the international law and sovereignty principles”, the prime minister’s press office reported.

Abashidze told journalists that Karasin responded that such issues should be discussed within the Geneva International Discussions format.

Abashidze express his concern that progress has no longer been achieved in the format of the Geneva discussions,” the press office said.

Abashidze and Karasin discussed the countries’ trade and economic relations.

As many Georgian companies are involved in Russia-Georgia trade and economic relations, offers have been made [by Georgia] to provide measures for the protection of their interests and support them to resolve problems,” the press office says.

Abashidze and Karasin also spoke about Georgia and Russia’s agreement "on the basic principles for a mechanism of customs administration and monitoring of trade in goods” on 9 November 2011 and stated that the problems creating obstacles for the implementation of the deal should be settled within the joint working group

The Georgian Dream government appointed Abashidze as the country’s envoy to Russia in 2012 to deal with only trade and economic issues.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations since the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.