British Ambassador Visits Abkhazia

De facto Abkhazian Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Chirikba asked British Ambassador to Georgia Judith Goff to give visas to people holding Abkhazian passports, News Georgia reported Feb. 21.

After a meeting with Goff in Sukhumi, the de facto capital of the Georgian breakaway region, Chirikba told journalists that the Abkhaz government “intends to send a request to the British Foreign Ministry for consideration.”

Goff said at a briefing that the British government offers Abkhazia several education, culture and English language programs.

“We came to Abkhazia with the aim of discussing the possibilities of implementing projects in the sphere of education, culture and English-language teaching. This is a global language, which opens doors to those who speak it,” Goff said.

Goff said English language teachers would arrive in Abkhazia to familiarize Abkhaz specialists with the modern methods. 

In Sukhumi, Goff also met with the de facto Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab and the Minister of Education Daur Nachkebia.

Ankvab said he did not expect much to change in the partially recognized republic's relationship with the European Union.

“Relations with the European Union are not the best and I am not sure they will change in the near future. I don’t have any illusions about that,” Ankvab said, as quoted by the Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress.

He said that the EU's policy of “engagement and non-recognition” would yield no results, nor would the most recent reconciliation plans proposed by Tbilisi.

“The truth is that no project created in the Georgian political environment will make it in Abkhazia. We’ve gone through a very difficult path of development and difficulties were much more on this path than Europeans can imagine,” Ankvab said, adding that he saw no sense in further meetings with Europeans, according to Civil.ge.