Georgia calls Russia's occupation a threat to stability
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 2 February 2013 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Georgia calls Russia's occupation a threat to stability, 2 February 2013, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/512235acc.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
February 02, 2013
By Charles Recknagel
Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze (file photo)
Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze says Russia's occupation of her country's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is a threat to regional and European stability.
Speaking at an international security conference in Munich on February 2, Panjikidze also said Tbilisi regrets that the OSCE was "forced to discontinue its presence in Georgia" and that her government attaches "great importance to the return of the [OSCE] mission."
She said that Tbilisi is trying, with the assistance of the international community, to convince Moscow that Russia can benefit from peace and stability in its immediate neighborhood.
She spoke on the second day of the three-day Munich Security Conference.
Hours earlier, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden had cited treatment of the two breakaway Georgian republics – whose independence Russia recognized following its brief war with Georgia in 2008 – among the "real" differences between Moscow and Washington.
"The United States will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states," Biden said. "We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence. It will remain America's view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances."
The meeting groups some 400 top diplomats and defense officials from the EU, the United States, and Russia in the southern German city.
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
