EU Leadership Necessary to Solve Abkhazian Conflict

B. Grgic and A. Petersen, Institute for Strategic Studies | August 6, 2008

EU realizes it is time to solve the festering conflicts in the Union’s new neighborhood: Abkhazia and South Ossetia. ++ But Moscow has an interest in preserving this "simmering status quo” and delays anything that could resolve the duel as it helps to achieve the goal of keeping Georgia out of NATO. ++ The key to resolution is for the EU to convince Kremlin that peace and stability on its southern border are more important and beneficial for Russia than vetoing Georgia’s, and possibly independent Abkhazia’s, Western integration.