Hungary recognises Georgia’s neutral travel documents

Hungary has become the 12th country to recognise neutral travel documents that allow residents of two Georgian breakaway regions to move freely to foreign countries.

This morning the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality announced that Hungary made the decision to accept neutral travel documents from Abkhazian and South Ossetian residents on November 29, 2013.

Bulgaria, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic and the United States have also agreed to accept these neutral travel documents.

But Russian authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have openly criticized the neutral travel documents and said this initiative would further isolate these two regions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry believed that Tbilisi had tried to impose residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with Georgian identification cards, falsely portraying them as neutral documents.

Georgia has issued the neutral travel documents since July 2011 after its Parliament approved a legislative change. Moreover, the identification cards were designed for people who "legally live in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Only few dozen of the neutral travel documents have been issued by Georgia since it was introduced.

Issuing of neutral travel documents and identification cards is outlined in the Action Plan for Engagement, part of Georgias State Strategy on Occupied Territories, adopted in 2010.