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In his personal statement published by Jam News on January 26, Toivo Klaar, the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia, says that his request to visit Abkhazia scheduled for the end of January 2024 has been denied. It marked the second refusal of his visit to the region in the past six months, Civil Georgia reported.

“Abkhazia’s relative openness should not become a casualty of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Klaar writes, adding that “instead, now is a need for more, not less, direct personal contacts to exchange views and assessments of recent and current developments and to discuss possibilities for further mutual engagement.”

The EU special envoy notes that in recent years there have been “increasing restrictions being placed on our work and the work of UN agencies, international NGOs and local civil society organizations.”

Toivo Klaar underlines the European Union “has been playing a key role in facilitating dialogue and conflict resolution efforts” in the South Caucasus in general, as well as between Tbilisi and the de-facto authorities in Sokhumi.

“In this context and in the framework of our policy of non-recognition and engagement,” according to Klaar, “the EU has been facilitating or funding a considerable number of humanitarian programmes in Abkhazia over more than a decade now.”

The EU envoy notes that despite fundamental political differences and disagreements on some core issues “we have always managed to keep channels of communication open and allow for space for engagement in all those areas that I have mentioned.”