Georgian MFA: El Salvador supports Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty
Vladimir Konstantinidi made the statement following the recent meeting of the President of El Salvador and the de-facto leader of occupied Tskhinvali in Venezuela. Photo: MFA
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Georgian Foreign Ministry official Vladimir Konstantinidi says that El Salvador has faithfully supported Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty since the establishment of diplomatic relations back in 1999.
Konstantinidi’s statement comes in the wake of a meeting with the President of El Salvador Salvador Sánchez Cerén and the de-facto leader of the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region Anatoly Bibilov in Venezuela recently.
Konstantinidi noted that Georgia contacted El Salvador and asked about the nature of the meeting and its purpose which took place during the inauguration ceremony of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in for a second but controversial six-year term, widely condemned as illegitimate by the international community.
“Georgia, like the international community, does not recognise the results of the undemocratic presidential elections held in Venezuela in 2018”, Konstantinidi said, noting that the illegitimacy of the inauguration and the attempts of the de-facto leadership of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali to establish foreign diplomatic relations at the event fail to conceal the ongoing occupation of and the ethnic cleansing in the regions.
He noted that countries that establish diplomatic relations with the occupied territories of Georgia result in criticism from the international community, and that the United States has even limited its financial aid to those countries that have recognised Georgia’s occupied regions violating the principles of international law.
Georgia shares the position of the international community and says that the country does not recognize the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduro as the president of Venezuela.
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Relatives living on opposite sides of the occupation line between Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia will have no chance of celebrating the upcoming New Year together.
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De facto leader of Georgia’s eastern occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region Anatoly Bibilov says that his “country” wants a direct dialogue with Tbilisi, or such a dialogue to be mediated by Russia, Bibilov told the Russian media Izvestia.