By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia Saturday welcomed the UN Security Council’s resolution on extending a mandate of a UN observer mission in Georgia and Abkhazia, saying it would help ensure stability in the region.
The UN Security Council Friday unanimously passed Resolution 1866 to extend by another four months a mandate for its observer mission in Georgia and its former region of Abkhazia, which is recognised as an independent state by Russia.
“The adopted resolution will ensure security and stability in this region. Russia… is ready to start immediately the work on the Council’s decision to set up the parameters of the future UN mandate,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The new UN document supports the French-brokered ceasefire plan that ended a brief military conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 and calls for the non-use of force in resolution of conflicts in the region.
The UN mission in the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict zone – formerly known as the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) – was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a bloody post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
Moscow recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia after a five-day war last August with Georgia, which attacked the latter in an attempt to bring it back under the control of Tbilisi.
Though the US and the EU condemned Russia’s move, Nicaragua followed suit and recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia.