KINKEL GEORGIA VISIT AIMED AT STRESSING BONN'S REGIONAL
ROLE
22-01-1996 16:05:00 | Armenia | World News
Bonn Jan 22 (DPA-NT) - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel
travels to Georgia Tuesday in a trip aimed at underscoring
Germany's continuing political and economic interest in the
Transcaucasian region, the Bonn Foreign Ministry said. Kinkel
is scheduled to have meetings with Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze and Foreign Minister Irakli Menagarischvili during
his two-day stay in Tbilisi which follows a trip to Armenia and
Azerbaijan last month.
Among the key issues of talks will be the situation in
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Georgia signed a ceasefire in its war with Abkhazian separatists
in 1993 but the Black Sea region remains outside of Tbilisi's
control. A German diplomat is negotiating on behalf of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
between Tiblisi and South Ossetian separatists. "The visit is
meant to demonstrate the will of the German government for
further political and economic support of the Caucasus states
which have considerable importance as a linkage between Europe
and Asia," said a Foreign Ministry statement.
Germany has supplied Georgia with 93 million marks (63
million dollars) in development aid and 30 per cent of the 295
million Ecu (378 million dollars) in technical and humanitarian
aid supplied by the European Union. Trade between Germany and
Georgia is growing but remains low.
In 1994 Germany imported goods worth only 6.6 million marks
from Georgia, a 44 per cent increase from the previous year,
according to the Federal Statistics Office. German imports
during the first half of 1995 were 4 million marks. German
exports to Georgia in 1994 totalled 28 million marks, up 19 per
cent from 1993. German exports for the first six months of 1995
were worth 14.6 million marks.
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