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S. Ossetia defiant as Georgia protests meeting with N. Ossetia

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The foreign minister of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia Saturday dismissed Georgian protests over a meeting he held with politicians in North Ossetia, a region in the south of Russia.

MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - The foreign minister of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia Saturday dismissed Georgian protests over a meeting he held with politicians in North Ossetia, a region in the south of Russia.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry earlier lodged a formal complaint with the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi over the meeting, which took place in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

"The meeting took place yesterday. South Ossetia is a sovereign state, and not a part of Georgia. We can decide for ourselves with whom we want to be friends and how to behave," Murat Dzhioyev said.

The two Ossetian delegations said they had agreed to work together in a number of areas, including social, economic, technical and cultural matters.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry said it would consider the meeting as a breach of international norms and interference in the affairs of a neighboring state, as well as an unfriendly step by Russia toward Georgia.

South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements after a bloody conflict between the sides, and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since. Georgia has accused Russia of siding with separatists and stalling an ongoing peace process.

The South Ossetian authorities want to rejoin North Ossetia, although the two regions were separate administrative entities in the Soviet era and were separated further after the breakup of the Soviet Union. South Ossetia announced earlier this year that it would ask Russia's Constitutional Court to allow it to join the Russian Federation and would present historical documents to back its claim.

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