Opening statement by Sergey Shamba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia at talks with Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Moscow, October 4, 2024

Opening statement by Sergey Shamba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia at talks with Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Moscow, October 4, 2024
4 October 2024 112

Thank you very much... You yourself remembered the times when you and I established diplomatic relations between our countries and then after that we signed a Memorandum on cooperation between our ministries. This period, of course, was fateful for our people, because the dream of many generations of our people for independence came true.

The recognition of the Russian Federation as a great power, a member of the UN Security Council, a nuclear power, the largest country in the world, of course, opens up enormous opportunities for us, and as you have already said, since then a large number of treaties, interdepartmental agreements have been signed, which have given us good opportunities to develop our security and our economic opportunities.

If prior to 2008, before Russia's recognition, fears of the threat of new aggression from Georgia prevailed in our public consciousness, then after those treaties that were concluded between us, this threat receded into the background. People began to think about the economy, about social issues, and the sacrifices that our people have suffered over the years at the hands of terrorists and saboteurs, including the peacekeepers, who more than a hundred people laid down their lives for our security - we always remember this and honor these sacrifices.

All this has faded into the background, today we have other concerns. It so happened that fate brought us together again, and again difficult times. And our region, Abkhazia, is located in such a place that the events that are happening in the world today, and these are grandiose events of a global scale, the reorganization of the world system is happening before our eyes. And all this is in close proximity to us: The Black Sea has become a conflict zone, American reconnaissance planes are increasingly appearing there, ships are entering. We feel this, and Transcaucasia, which also became a point after the events between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh took place, and we are waiting for what Georgia will do. We know about the pressure from various Western countries and Ukraine on Georgia. The leaders of Georgia speak openly about this, they are being pushed to open a second front. The events in Ukraine, in Russia, in the Special Military Operation zone, of course are also in our field of vision. You are right, we have a considerable number of our guys participating there, guys, and, unfortunately, there are also large losses, which indicates that they are directly participating in combat operations.

But our people, Sergey Viktorovich, as you know, have always honestly and conscientiously fulfilled their allied duty. The fact that the Abkhazians are not inclined to any maneuvers, to political ones, is precisely the result of the fact that today we have only 100 thousand people left on our land. We, our ancestors, fulfilled their duty conscientiously during the First World War, when all the Abkhazians who participated returned with the St. George Crosses, they were called crusaders then. During the Second World War, the Abkhazians and Ossetians, in percentage terms are in first place in the list of heroes of the Soviet Union. And now our guys are also conscientiously fulfilling their allied obligations. We hope that our cooperation with you will provide opportunities for us to correctly navigate this complex world, in this complex situation. You have enormous experience, and I would like, of course, to choose the right path in such mutual cooperation with you, taking into account your great opportunities and experience. We are open to such a dialogue, to such cooperation.

You can be sure of one thing, that we honestly and conscientiously fulfill and will fulfill our allied relations. We have signed 45 different agreements, projects in terms of harmonizing our legislation, of which we have already implemented 27, and the rest too. Of course, our domestic political situation is also not simple, we have a conflict of opinions. But, ultimately, we all proceed from the interests of our state, therefore we will fulfill all obligations. Thank you for your attention.

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