Belarus Lawmakers to Make Georgia Recognition Visit
By Andrei Makhovsky
November 5, 2009
Reuters
MINSK - Belarussian parliamentarians said on Thursday they would travel to Georgia and its breakaway regions later this month as Minsk considers whether to follow Moscow's recognition of the regions as independent countries.
Although a close Russia ally, Belarus has so far resisted joining Nicaragua and Venezuela, the only countries that endorsed Moscow's decision to acknowledge the breakaway regions as independent countries, following the August 2008 Georgia war.
The delegation will travel to both sides of the divided country, travelling to both Tbilisi and the Russian-backed rebel regions.
Belarus' powerful President Alexander Lukashenko has insisted he will not be pressurised by Moscow into a decision and has said his country's parliament must first review the issue.
Lukashenko has sought to balance his country's dependence on Moscow as a military and economically with developing better relations with the European Union, which opposes any recognition of the breakaway regions.
A working group has been set up to prepare hearings to review questions about the Abkhazia and South Ossetia, said Sergei Maskevich, the representative for the parliament's international affairs committee.
"This group plans to visit Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia, from the 17 to 20 November and to meet deputies in the parliament at the end of November," Maskevich told journalists.
Maskevich said officials in Tbilisi had indicated their interest in discussing the issue. Belarus had no time frame for taking a final decision on whether or not to recognise the breakaway regions, he said.
A source in the Georgian foreign ministry said the delegation had asked the Georgian authorities for permission to visit the breakaway regions.
"We gave them permission," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. "We know they are coming and we are ready to talk to them."
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, additional reporting by Niko Mchedlishvili, writing by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Ralph Bouton)
