Georgia Condemns Russia's Deals With Breakaway Territories

Tbilisi is urging the international community to condemn a treaty that has increased Russia's control over Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Davit Kereselidze said in Tbilisi on December 11 that the Georgian delegation at a new round of talks with Russia in Geneva condemned the treaty, calling it "illegal."

Among other things, the treaty signed on November 24 calls for the creation of a joint Russian-Abkhaz military force within a year and says Russia and Abkhazia will treat an attack on the other as an attack on itself.

Tbilisi has also warned Russia against concluding a similar treaty with South Ossetia, a breakaway region that was the focus of a five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.

The de facto leader of South Ossetia, Leonid Tibilov, said on December 10 that the separatist government plans to sign a similar treaty with Russia in early 2015.

With reporting by apsny.ge and Interfax