20:47, 12 September 2003

Tbilisi is discontented with agreement between Abkhazia and Krasnodar Territory

The Georgian Foreign Ministry addressed the note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the agreement on friendship and cooperation between Russia's Krasnodar Territory and the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia, which was concluded in Sukhumi on September 9. Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Kakha Sikharulidze announced it at a briefing on Friday.

"It is inadmissible that the Russian leadership does not pay attention to the unconcealed breach of the neighboring country's sovereignty by Russia's subject," he said.

Sikharulidze believes that subjects of the Russian Federation break active bilateral Georgian-Russian agreements on the recognition of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of each other when they enter into agreements with Sukhumi without Georgian authorities' knowledge. They also break the agreement on the non-admission of unilateral contacts with separative Abkhazian authorities without Georgia's knowledge, which was signed within the CIS in 1996.

Source: Interfax News Agency