Abkhazia and Damascus signed an agreement Monday on enhancing bilateral relations and on mutual exemption of visas for the citizens in both countries for bearers of diplomatic, official, and private passports.
The announcement came during the visit of an Abkhazian delegation to Damascus, chaired by head of the Administration of the President Alkhas Kvitsinia and Foreign Minister Daur Vadimovich Kove, who will participate in the opening ceremony of the Abkhazian Embassy in Syria on October 6.
Kvitsinia met Monday with President Bashar Assad, Prime Minister Husein Arnus, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid Moallem. The delegation conveyed greetings from President Aslan Bzhania and wishes for peace and prosperity to the people of Syria. Kvitsinia noted that the people of Abkhazia support to the people of Syria in their desire to protect the country from terrorism and to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The delegation’s meeting with Moallem tackled bilateral relations and means of enhancing them in different areas.
Members of the Abkhazian delegation also expressed the importance of the historic decision by the two sides to establish diplomatic relations as a basis of cooperation in all fields, particularly in economy, trade, and investment.
Syria recognized Georgia’s two Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as independent states back in 2018, a step which was condemned by the international community.
Since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war, the regions have been recognized as independent states only by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria.
The move came one day after Moallem received a copy of the credentials of Turki Mahmood al-Busaidi, the extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of Oman to Syria, to become the first Gulf ambassador who returns to Damascus since the war erupted in the country in 2011.
