Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia
5 December 2018 660
The Foreign Ministry of Abkhazia drew attention to reports in the media on an agreement reached between Georgia and the United States on the construction of a military airfield in Vaziani under the auspices of NATO. The agreement was reached during the talks between Levan Izoria, Georgian Defense Minister and Stephen Lyons, General, the head of the transport command of the US armed forces.
The implementation of this joint initiative of Georgia and the United States clearly shows that military cooperation between Georgia and the NATO bloc which has been rapidly gaining momentum in recent years, is moving to a qualitatively new level.
The planned modernization of the military airfield, which can receive large US military transport aircraft, will turn it into a powerful NATO logistics center in the South Caucasus.
Official reports that the center of defense readiness in Vaziani will be used exclusively for the transfer of military units to joint exercises of Georgia and the NATO countries should not be misleading. Such infrastructure may well be involved in the case of a deliberate attempt to military escalation in the region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia expresses serious concern about the active build-up of cooperation between Georgia and the US-led NATO bloc. We draw attention to the fact that the full-scale militarization of Georgia carried out by Washington creates a potential hotbed of tension in the South Caucasus and may finally undermine efforts to ensure peace and security in the region.
Various kinds of “peace initiatives” proposed for “residents of Abkhazia”, such as the “Step to a better future” and others, look cynical against the background of the active rapprochement of Georgia with NATO. Presenting its peace initiatives at various international platforms, Tbilisi, with the support of its Western friends, feverishly builds up its military potential. All this is combined with the course pursued by Georgia at the diplomatic level on the international isolation of the Republic of Abkhazia.
The Abkhaz side calls on international mediators to pay close attention to the process of militarization of Georgia and give it an appropriate assessment. For its part, the Republic of Abkhazia, while continuing to develop military-technical cooperation with the Russian Federation, is ready to take adequate measures for the adventurous actions of Tbilisi.
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