Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a visit to the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia. At the official level, Belarus does not recognize Abkhazia as an "independent state".
This is reported on the website of the so-called president of Abkhazia.
He notes that he held a meeting with Lukashenka at the "state dacha in Pitsunda" — an Abkhaz city on the Black Sea coast.
"We discussed these issues long into the night and came to one conclusion that Abkhazia cannot be abandoned," Lukashenko said, explaining that he had discussed Abkhazia at a meeting with Putin.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia has already reacted to Lukashenkoʼs visit to Abkhazia. They summoned the Belarusian ambassador there and asked for additional explanations. They also condemned Lukashenkaʼs arrival there and noted that he violated the countryʼs state border.
"We call on the Belarusian side to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the sovereign state within its internationally recognized borders and not to take actions that contradict the fundamental principles of international law," the statement emphasizes.
In 2008, as a result of the Russian invasion of Georgia, the Russian Federation occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia and recognized their "independence". Since then, these regions remain occupied and fully controlled, and dependent on Russia. The independence of these republics is recognized by only four UN member states, except the Russian Federation: Venezuela, Syria, Nicaragua, and Nauru.
The territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia themselves have hardly been controlled by the Georgian government since the collapse of the USSR. Then the first wars broke out, and the regions unilaterally declared "independence" and the desire to join the Russian Federation. Abkhazians and Ossetians have had their own countries or autonomies as part of empires for centuries. Then, in the early 1920s, the USSR changed the borders of the Soviet republics at its own discretion, regardless of ethnic, religious, and cultural factors. At the same time, Abkhazia and South Ossetia were part of Georgia.