Co-chairs of Geneva talks were told in Sokhumi by the breakaway region’s foreign minister that the Abkhaz side would not change its position and “make no compromise” in respect of head of EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM).

Sokhumi, which has declared the EUMM head, Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, as “undesirable person on the Abkhaz territory”, is refusing to participate in monthly meetings of Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRM) in Gali in presence of the EUMM head. 

“Ahead of the Geneva Discussions, co-chairs [from EU, OSCE and UN] always hold meetings in Sukhum, Tskhinval, Tbilisi and Moscow. But this time we have an extraordinary situation as there is a crisis in respect of IPRM,” Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported on May 10 quoting the breakaway region’s foreign minister Vyacheslav Chirikba. “We have once again reaffirmed our principled position about head of the EU Monitoring Mission Andrzej Tyszkiewicz and stressed, that we are not going to revise it. We will not make a compromise.”

He also said that he had discussed with the co-chairs agenda of upcoming, twentieth round of Geneva talks, scheduled for June 7-8.