SUKHUM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2022) The Abkhazian Foreign Ministry expressed on Monday the hope that Minsk would recognize the independence of Abkhazia after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had voiced such a possibility.
Earlier in the day, Lukashenko told the Solovyov Live show on YouTube that he did not exclude the possibility of recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"We express the hope that the Republic of Belarus, which shares the basic international legal principles, including the principle of equality and self-determination of the people, will support the course chosen by the people of Abkhazia towards the formation of a free independent state and will follow the example of its strategic ally, the Russian Federation," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, Sukhumi positively assesses the statement of the Belarusian president about the possibility of recognizing the sovereignty of the Abkhazian state.
"Abkhazia is open for a full-scale dialogue with states friendly to Russia that share the just aspirations of the people of Abkhazia. Developing allied relations with Russia, Abkhazia would be interested in establishing of official contacts with the Republic of Belarus, which is a strategic ally of the Russian Federation, a member of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, a full and active member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization," the statement read.
Abkhazia, along with another breakaway region, South Ossetia, declared independence from Georgia in August 2008 following an offensive of the Georgian army. Russia has backed South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where the majority of the population hold Russian citizenship. Other countries that recognize the self-proclaimed republics currently include Nauru, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela.
Georgia, like most countries, has never recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and continues to consider them an occupied part of its own territory.
