Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia to restore Sochi-Tbilisi train link
By Kseniya Kaminskaya, Yulia Bagrysheva
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 15, 2005 Wednesday 12:30 PM Eastern Time
MOSCOW, June 15 — Russian, Georgian and Abkhazian experts at a meeting
in Moscow have confirmed the decision to start restoring the railway
link between the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi and the Georgian
capital Tbilisi through the territory of Georgia’s breakaway region
of Abkhazia, Abkhazian Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya has said.
Moscow, Sukhumi and Tbilisi and also Yerevan and Baku have taken
interest in this project.
Georgian conflicts settlement minister Georgy Khaindrava has said
“groups of experts will soon determine the preliminary conditions of
work and the funds necessary to get the work going.”
“Once the rail track has been examined, discussions will begin
on specific ways of how to resume traffic. Representatives of
international organizations will participate in the talks between
the parties concerned.”
“The first trilateral meeting of railway experts will be held in
coordination with the special U.N. representative in the zone of
the conflict,” Khaindrava said. The peace-keeping force stationed in
Abkhazia will be represented, too.
Khaindrava described the beginning of negotiations as “the first
step towards the solution of a bundle of problems in Russian-Georgian
relations.”
“Russian, Georgian and Abkhazian specialists will participate in the
examination of the rail track between Sochi and Tbilisi. Security is
one of the most essential questions.”
Lakerbaya remarked that “the mission of maintaining security will
have to be placed on Abkhazia’s shoulders.”
He hopes that the resumption of railway traffic will be successful
and take place on time and in an appropriate atmosphere, just as the
Russian and Georgian leaders agreed on in Sochi in 2003.