BRUSSELS - The so-called treaty between Russia and Abkhazia does not contribute to a lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.
“We do not recognize the so-called treaty on alliance and strategic partnership signed between the Georgian region of Abkhazia and Russia on November 24,” he said in a statement released in Brussels on Monday evening.
Stoltenberg said that the “this so-called treaty does not contribute to a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia.”
“We continue to call on Russia to reverse its recognition of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia as independent states and to withdraw its forces from Georgia,” he said.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, in turn, criticized the treaty signed between Abkhazia and Russia.
“The Russian Federation’s signature today of a so-called ‘Treaty on Alliance and Strategic Partnership’ with Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia is detrimental to ongoing efforts to stabilize the security situation in the region,” Mogherini said in a statement released in Brussels on Monday evening.
She said that just like earlier agreements signed between Russia and Abkhazia, this “violates Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, contradicts principles of international law and the international commitments of the Russian Federation.”
