Vanuatu, make up your mind already!
First, you make international headlines -- thanks largely to Russian media assistance -- with reports about recognizing breakaway Abkhazia as an independent country. Then, your envoy at the UN declares that you did not recognize anything, much less Abkhazia, and calls the news “defamation” and “disrespect.”
But Abkhazia's de facto Foreign Minister Maxim Gunjia, the original source of the recognition story, sticks to his claim that the recognition did happen, and says that he holds written proof of the deed. Perhaps the UN envoy is just not in the swing of things, he adds.
There has got to be a way to make your word final on this. Since phone, email and pigeon inquiries from Tbilisi do not reach your South Pacific shores easily, perhaps posting a statement on your official website can help? Or your Facebook fan page, which now has 196 “likes,” including one from Georgia.
Do it at least for New Zealand (one of your major aid donors), where media have started asking if the Kiwis are at risk of being dragged into this perceived South Pacific rivalry between the US and Russia over Georgia.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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