The Georgian government endorsed on January 27 a document – ”State Strategy on Occupied Territories: Engagement Through Cooperation” – laying out Tbilisi’s vision towards two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“The key element of the document is that we say no to any type of isolation of these regions; residents of those regions are residents of Georgia so we can not let isolation of these regions,” Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said.
“We can not let the situation wherein fate of residents of these regions will depend solely on the occupying power; so we plan to take active steps to provide the local population with an opportunity to have normal education, healthcare, to engage in economic projects,” Iakobashvili, who led the drafting of the paper, added.
The government has now to develop a detailed action plan of implementing the strategy – the process, which is expected to last about six month.
The document offers setting up of “a status-neutral” mechanisms “for interaction with authorities in control of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia” in order to implement goals laid out in the strategy paper.
The document also says that the Georgian government “will continue to engage with the occupying power [Russia], within the framework of the Geneva process or other potential forums, to ensure the successful implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan.”
The Georgian text of the document, unlike its official English translation, contains appendix in which some of the terms used in the document are explained. The term “authorities in control of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia” is explained as “puppet regimes, established and supported by the occupying power on Georgia’s occupied territories.”