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Belarus must refrain from recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia - Saakashvili

Georgia Materials 16 July 2010 06:05 (UTC +04:00)
Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili says he hopes Belarus would not give its vote for the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, RIA Novosti reported.
Belarus must refrain from recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia - Saakashvili

Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili says he hopes Belarus would not give its vote for the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, RIA Novosti reported.

"I believe that Belarus will make a wise move as we [Georgia] received a group of lawmakers from Belarus recently and they considered the issue very deliberately," Saakashvili said in an interview with Belarus television.

The Georgian president added that "Russia keeps implying pressure on Belarus concerning the issue of recognizing the independence of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia."

South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia recognized their independence after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008 that began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

Only Nicaragua, Venezuela and the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru have followed suit.

Belarus was expected to follow the suit but dragged its feet for more than almost two year on the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and experts believe Minsk is afraid that this move would worsen its relations with the European Union.

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