Georgian Foreign Ministry condemns opening of so-called customs points in occupied regions
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The Georgian Foreign Ministry condemns the opening of customs points in Georgia’s Russian occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The Russian occupation forces have opened an illegal customs point in Akhalgori and created a specialized customs post in Sokhumi.
The Foreign Ministry believes that in doing so, the Russian Federation aims at integrating the occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions within its customs sphere. This, according to the ministry, is yet another illegal step towards the factual annexation of these regions.
With these destructive actions, the Russian Federation deliberately attempts to hamper the efforts of Georgia and the international community to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict and further hampers engagement between the communities divided by the occupation line”, Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry called upon the Russian Federation to cease the provocative actions against Georgian statehood, abide by its international commitments, de-occupy Georgia’s territories and take steps aimed at peaceful conflict resolution in accordance with the principles of international law.
It also appealed to the international community to give due assessment to Russia’s aggressive policies and take effective measures against the steps towards the factual annexation of the territories of Georgia.
Two of Russian-occupied regions of Georgia – Tskhinvali and Abkhazia – have their own de-facto governments, supported by Russia. These territories are internationally recognised as part of Georgia but Tbilisi has no factual control over them.
The Russian Federation continues its military occupation and illegal militarisation of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia), thus destabilising the situation in the entire region and violating the fundamental rights of the local population, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister David Dondua said.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the ratification of an illegal military deal between Russia and Georgia’s breakaway region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) that envisages the creation of joint military troops between Russia and the occupied region.
The de-facto leadership of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) is planning to open a customs point between the region and the rest of Georgia. De-facto head of Tskhinvali’s so-called customs committee Murat Tskhovrebov announced the news today.
De-facto Abkhazian officials have closed two crossing-points along the occupation line separating Georgia’s breakaway, Russian-backed Abkhazia region from the rest of the country.
The OSCE Permanent Council and the Council of Europe’s (CoE) ministers’ deputies condemn Russia’s recent illegal steps in the occupied regions of Georgia - Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia). The parties agree that relevant measures need to be taken against Russia’s illegal steps in Georgia’s Russian occupied regions.