Georgia seeks to settle relations with Abkhaz and Ossetian compatriots and is expressing its wish to set aside past disagreements, Georgian Foreign Ministry’s special statement on the fourth anniversary of the 2008 August War says.
The statement expresses readiness “to set aside past disagreements, while taking active and pragmatic steps towards enabling the communities divided by the new Berlin Wall of the occupation line to re-engage, to look once more with confidence at each other and towards the shared future”.
“The Georgian government adopted an engagement strategy in the aftermath of the 2008 war, the main aim of which is to restore confidence through day-to-day relations with people living in the occupied territories and to offer them opportunities for economic and social development. By implementing this strategy, we are extending the hand of friendship to our Abkhaz and Ossetian compatriots,” the statement says.
Georgian Foreign Ministry recalled that the country has on more than one occasion expressed its readiness to negotiate with Russia on all outstanding issues at any level. “Unfortunately, Russia has not reciprocated,” the statement says.
