Sergei Lavrov's comments come in response to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's speech to the UN General Assembly earlier in the day, in which he demanded a change in the format of talks on the breakaway Georgian region, and the replacement of Russian peacekeepers in the republic with "neutral forces" that would maintain peace rather than the "unjust status quo."
Russian peacekeepers are based in the region on a mandate from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which comprises the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
"Russia is in the conflict zone not through its own wishes, but because an agreement on this was made through a multilateral format, and it should be discussed in this same format," Lavrov told journalists at the UN headquarters in New York.
Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry issued an official statement Thursday criticizing Saakashvili's comments on Russian peacekeepers, saying they showed "distain for the numerous efforts by international mediators, and also for the lives of UN and Russian peacekeepers who have died through the fault of Georgia."
Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
