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Leaders of Georgian breakaway republics to meet in Moscow

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MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Malyshkin) - Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two self-proclaimed republics of Georgia, intend to meet in Moscow before the end of the year, the Abkhazian president said Thursday.

"Eduard Kokoity and I plan to meet before the end of the year in Moscow," Sergei Bagapsh said, referring to the South Ossetian president. "We have to discuss the current situation in our regions and highlight some aspects of cooperation in emergencies."

Bagapsh said that if Georgia began military aggression against South Ossetia, Abkhazia would withdraw from the negotiations and would do everything possible to aid South Ossetia.

The Abkhazian leader said this message had been made clear to UN officials and to the U.S. ambassador to Georgia.

Bagapsh said Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which seceded from Georgia after bloody conflicts in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, had concluded an agreement on cooperation.

"The military component is not laid down in this agreement, as we did not seek to include it," Bagapsh said. "But our relations with South Ossetia suggest that we will not abandon each other in times of need."

He said every conflict in the former Soviet republics had its own specifics, but conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia had to be addressed simultaneously.

"You cannot resolve one of them, without resolving the other," he said.

Bagapsh also said Abkhazia would follow the developments around Kosovo.

"If the state of Kosovo is recognized, all the newly formed states that are referred to as self-proclaimed will also be recognized," Bagapsh said.

Bagapsh also said there was no need yet for a meeting between the leaders of the four self-proclaimed republics in the former Soviet Union, which include the Transdnestr Republic in Moldova, Nagorny Karabakh in Azerbaijan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"We can gather for a meeting at any moment," Bagapsh said. "I recently met with the presidents of Transdnestr and Nagorny Karabakh."

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