Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili rejected key elements of a German plan on Thursday aimed at ending a dangerous dispute with Russia over the separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia.
Saakashvili told reporters after talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that Georgia would not renounce the use of force in the conflict due to what he called incessant Russian provocations.
“As we speak there is a process of daily militarization of Abkhazia in front of the eyes of the international community,” he said. “If these kind of things continue to happen, talking about any kind of solutions will be very, very, very difficult.”
Steinmeier started a two-day trip in Georgia on Thursday that will also take him to Russia and Abkhazia in a bid to defuse a conflict that brought the region to the brink of war just months ago.
The German minister, whose country chairs the so-called UN Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Georgia, said the situation in Abkhazia was explosive and that “the spiraling violence must be stopped.”
He is aiming to thrash out a way forward based on a three-stage peace proposal drawn up by Berlin and presented to the three parties over the last week.
The first step of Berlin’s plan would entail an end to violence, confidence-building measures over the next year that could lead to the resumption of direct talks between Georgia and Abkhazia and the return of about 250,000 Georgian refugees to Abkhazia.
The second stage would involve developing joint reconstruction projects while the third and most difficult step would determine Abkhazia’s future status.
Steinmeier said he sought “a peaceful resolution based on the territorial integrity of Georgia” but said the West was deeply concerned about the recent escalation in the region.
“No one among us has any illusions. I am not here in the region to raise false hopes. But this deadlock must be broken,” he said.
German delegation sources said the talks with Saakashvili had been “difficult” but that the president had thanked Germany for its initiative and pledged Georgian cooperation in defusing the conflict.
Steinmeier spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about Abkhazia in the last week to prepare for the trip.
He was to travel yesterday to the region, where he was due to meet local leaders, before stopping in Moscow for talks with Lavrov and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
But speaking in Moscow on Thursday, Lavrov appeared to pour cold water on the German proposal, saying suggestions the agreement include the return of hundreds of thousands of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia were “unrealistic.”
And Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh, whom Steinmeier was to meet yesterday, said this week he could not consider the plan, according to Russian news agencies.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS