Three unrecognized republics discuss military alliance at talks in Moscow

Interfax-AVN military news agency web site
4 Apr 05

Moscow, 4 April: Representatives of the Georgian separatist regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the Moldovan breakaway Dniester region
announced at a meeting in Moscow on Monday [4 April] that they were
considering forming a military alliance of the three regions.

The three regions, which unilaterally declared themselves independent
states in the early 1990s, “will use all available resources to
help each other”, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba told a news
conference at the Interfax main office.

He was referring to talks in Moscow in which, he said, he had met
South Ossetian envoy to Russia Dmitriy Medoyev and Dniester region
foreign minister Valeriy Litskay.

Shamba said that, among other things, the three officials had
considered “measures that could be used in connection with the South
Ossetia issue”.

Medoyev said commitments for mutual military assistance “will be
reflected in a package of documents that is being drafted for a
meeting between the leaders of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the
Dniester region”.

Litskay said the president of a fourth unrecognized state, the
Armenian-speaking enclave of Nagornyy Karabakh in Azerbaijan, might
take part in the summit.

“There is a conference of ministers of Abkhazia, the Dniester region,
South Ossetia and Nagornyy Karabakh that has existed for five years
already. Now it has become necessary to raise the level of such
meetings to the level of heads of state. At the same time, none of the
sides have any strict commitments to participate in such meetings,”
Litskay said.

Litskay, Shamba and Medoyev spoke highly of Russia’s participation
in efforts to settle the conflicts between their regions and the
countries they have broken away from.

“In effectively every case, Moscow is a guarantor, mediator and
peacekeeper. Russia alone has shown not only interest but also an
ability to act and stop war,” Litskay said.