President of the Republic of Abkhazia

December 1, 2014. The President of the Republic of Abkhazia conducted a work meeting with the Members of the People’s Assembly - Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia.

Greeting the MPs the President underlined that he wishes to share his impression on the events related to the signing of the Agreement between the Republic of Abkhazia and Russian Federation on alliance and strategic partnership.

“Negotiations that preceded the signing, internal disturbances in the society and people’s apprehensions are understandable. For the first time we publically discussed the agreement, we should keep creating opportunities for open dialogue”, said Raul  Khadzhimba. “It is impossible to take all opinion into account and put change to every provision of the agreement. But it is necessary to unite our thoughts, motives and common frame of society’s and expert’s minds, which is exactly what was done and that is why we have signed an agreement in the light of the amendments of Abkhaz side and the opinion of the public”, highlighted the President.

You are in the prospect of ratification of the signed Agreement, which is an important step in building and developing relations between Abkhazia and Russia. We have to keep aside the internal political discords and be guided by the interests of the Abkhaz nation and Abkhaz state”, said Raul  Khadzhimba, addressing MPs.

«A lot of people were wondering should we or should we not put this issue to public discussion? I remain committed to my position – all signed documents of this scale should be understood by the society. And the process should be implemented according to official procedure - discussion, signing and further ratification of the Agreement by MPs”, noted Raul Khadzhimba.

“After signing primary agreement of 2008 between Abkhazia and Russia a lot of interministerial treaties were signed – some of them caused concerns of the society, but there were no public discussions. All next interministerial agreements would be evaluated by the experts”, informed the President. He also underlined that the future depends on how correctly the state bodies will be working on realization of concrete provisions of the Agreement.

The Head of the State also shared his impression about the meeting with the President of Russia. “During the course of the private conversation full understanding in the vision on the cooperation between Abkhazia and Russia as equal partners in the spheres of security, defense, joint border patrolling was reached”, said Raul  Khadzhimba.

Answering the questions of MPs the President noted that the financial assistance by Russian Federation would be redirected to the real sector of the economy – development of economic infrastructure, agriculture, production. “But the results will depend on how well we will use the resources provided by Russian Federation”, he added.

During the course of the meeting, the issue of the Abkhaz railroad was also discussed. “The railroad should be working and it should be working using the means of our budget. It is the property of Abkhaz state and all our further action and steps would be implemented with the consideration of this constant”, underlined the President.

The Member of Parliament Aslan Kobakhia asked the President to call for an urgent meeting on the issues of passportization of Gal population. Raul  Khadzhimba reminded MPs of the importance of settling the issue of legal status of Gal district population.

The MPs underlined that the policy of openness in relation of signing the documents gives positive results.

The President offered MPs to conduct such meetings more often and to exchange opinions on key issues. “The doors of my cabinet are always opened, I am ready to hear you out”, noted Raul Khadzhimba.