Vanuatu's new Prime Minister overturns previous government's recognition of Abkhazia

Edward Natapei, the new Prime Minister of Vanuatu, stated that he overturns the government's decision to recognize independence of Abkhazia. Mr Natapei also requested Donald Kalpokas, the representative of Vanuatu at the United Nations, to start the process of establishing official relations with Georgia.

The fact about Vanuatu's recognition of Abkhazia became known from the message of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Abkhazia in late May. Then the representative of Vanuatu at the UN denied this information and said that his country respects the territorial integrity of Georgia. However, then Vanuatu's recognition of Abkhazia was proved due to the documents published by media, which was signed by Sergey Shamba and Sato Kilman, the Prime Ministers of both countries, on May 23.

According to Edward Natapei, he agrees with the position of the international community on the status of Abkhazia. The Prime Minister of the island republic said about it in an interview with the "Daily Post".

Mr Natapei is a temporary Prime Minister of the country: he took the place of Sato Kilman, the former Prime Minister, after the latter left his office by the court decision. Now the Prime Minister should enlist the support of the Parliament of Vanuatu. Should the deputies fail to support Mr Natapei's candidacy, another politician would be appointed to be the Prime Minister. In this case, the position of Vanuatu regarding the status of Abkhazia can change again, the "RBC" reports.