Call it palm-tree diplomacy. Abkhazia’s de facto president, Sergei Bagapsh, is bound for Venezuela, Nicaragua and may swing by Cuba later in July to deepen ties between the Caribbean countries and the onetime fun-under-the-sun capital of the Soviet Union.
Abkhaz embassies are scheduled to open in both Venezuela and Nicaragua this year; Bagapsh expressed hope that other countries will also recognize Abkhazia's independence after his Caribbean tour.
With his Abkhaz passport, though, Bagapsh can only travel to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Russia and the South Pacific island of Nauru. The rest of the world still regards Abkhazia as part of Georgia.
Casting an apparent eye at recent US comments that spoke of Russia's "occupation" of the breakaway territory, Bagapsh said that neither the US nor the European Union can succeed in tearing Abkhazia away from its Russian protector. That relationship was forged not out of "considerations of the moment," he argued, but by Abkhazia "following its heart."
“Whether the Americans come to want it or not, nobody will tear anybody away from anybody,” Bagapsh declared.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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