News

On 4 July, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis met with Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, State Minister for Reintegration Eka Tkeshelashvili, who is paying a visit to Vilnius and who acquainted the Minister with the implementation of the Action Plan, based on the strategy on engagement that the Government of Georgia approved in July 2010.

The Action Plan of the Government of Georgia provides instruments to include people living in Abkhazia and the South Ossetia regions of Georgia into public life, to give them right to education and health care, and an opportunity to participate in economic projects, to develop infrastructure, transport and people-to-people contacts.

The Action Plan consists of four dimensions: humanitarian, human, social and economic. Seven instruments facilitate the implementation of the plan, including a status-neutral liaison mechanism, neutral identity card and travel document, trust fund, joint investment fund, cooperation agency, financial institution and integrated socio-economic zone.

According to E.Tkeshelashvili, the implementation of these instruments would strengthen direct contacts and inter-dependence of people living in Georgia, Abkhazia and the South Ossetia regions of Georgia, and would give an impetus to expand co-operation across the administrative boundary lines, also would help to improve the coordination of humanitarian programmes that are being implemented by the Government of Georgia and international organizations.

At the meeting, A.Ažubalis expressed support for the programmes of the Government of Georgia aimed at promoting specific activity, and stressed the importance of the implementation of projects, dedicated to build mutual trust in Abkhazian and South Ossetia regions of Georgia for the solution of the conflict in Georgia.

The head of the Lithuanian diplomacy believes that various discussions of youth, journalists, academicians, NGO representatives, historians and political scientists, public opinion makers from Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia would provide an opportunity to express different positions and, at the same time, to search for common ground that is crucial when aiming to solve the conflict.

A.Ažubalis highlighted the importance of mobility and movement across borders, and stressed, which could be facilitated by the introduction of the planned neutral identity cards and travel documents for people living in Abkhazia and the South Ossetia regions of Georgia.