TBILISI, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia plans to return the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia exclusively by peaceful means, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said in an interview to Rustavi 2 Broadcasting Company.
"We do not plan to return the territories [of Abkhazia and South Ossetia] by force, we intend to unite Georgia through peaceful means," the president said.
Previously, Abkhazian Vice President Vitaly Gabniya told RIA Novosti that the reluctance of Georgia to sign a document with Abkhazia on the nonuse of force speaks of Tbilisi's intention to solve the "Abkhazian issue" by force in the future.
Abkhazia broke away from Georgia following an ethnically tinged war in 1992-1993, just after the Soviet Union collapsed.
In the first half of August 2008, after the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, South Ossetia and Abkhazia appealed to Russia to recognize their independence from Georgia.
Both chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly adopted on August 25, 2008, an appeal to President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
On August 26, 2008, Medvedev, taking into account the free will of the South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples and guided by the UN Charter, the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States, the 1975 OSCE Helsinki Final Act and other fundamental international documents, signed the executive orders on the recognition by the Russian Federation of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
