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EU envoys to visit Georgian rebel region to discuss conflict

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A delegation of 15 ambassadors of EU states to Georgia will arrive in the country's breakaway region of Abkhazia on Friday to discus means of resuming peace talks, the Abkhaz foreign minister said.
MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) - A delegation of 15 ambassadors of EU states to Georgia will arrive in the country's breakaway region of Abkhazia on Friday to discus means of resuming peace talks, the Abkhaz foreign minister said.

Peace talks broke off when Tbilisi sent troops into Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge in July 2006 and established an alternative Abkhaz administration there. The province is also the focus of a dispute currently raging between Russia and Georgia, amid accusations that Russia shot down a Georgian unmanned spy plane over the region.

Sergei Shamba said he will attend the meeting with European diplomats along with Abkhazia's president, prime minister, and Security Council secretary.

At the talks, Abkhazia will raise the issue of "the biased approach of European states, the United Nations and other allies - all mediators in the talks process, who in no way want to recognize our rights, and only acknowledge Georgia's right to territorial integrity," Shamba said.

He said the European ambassadors want to study the conflicting parties' positions, fearing the situation in the conflict zone had become critical.

"We expect no breakthrough, this is just another opportunity for us to present our position. For them this is an opportunity to study the situation... This can be called a reconnaissance visit," Shamba said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to visit Abkhazia on June 6.

Abkhazia is one of Georgia's two breakaway de facto independent republics, along with South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On Wednesday, Georgia asked the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the destruction of a Georgian drone in Abkhazia on April 20.

A UN report published on Monday backed Georgia's version of events. Russia's Defense Ministry has dismissed the report, and Abkhazia says its military shot down the plane. Shamba told RIA Novosti that the province could pull out of UN-brokered peace talks with Georgia over the issue.

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