Vatican Ambassador summoned to Georgian Foreign Ministry after a visit to Abkhazia

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The Georgian foreign ministry released a statement, saying that on January 10, Vatican Ambassador to South Caucasus, Apostolic Nuncio to Georgia Claudio Gugerotti was summoned to the Georgian Foreign Ministry to give an explanation to his recent visit to Sukhumi and meeting with the separatists’ Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba without consent of the Georgian side.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Valery Chechelashvili said to the Vatican Ambassador, that such unauthorized meetings are absolutely intolerable. The Georgian government asks to coordinate such visits with Tbilisi not because of any political reasons, but by means of international security practice.

The Apostolic Nuncio stated that it was the last such case, says the statement. Regarding the information that Vatican promised direct humanitarian help to the Abkhaz government, the Nuncio said that this was untrue, and his words were misinterpreted in Sukhumi, and all humanitarian help will be coordinated with Tbilisi.

The statement also informs that Gugerotti said nothing about high level of religious tolerance in Abkhazia. Chechelashvili explained to the Nuncio that no tolerance can take place in the country, where the Georgian Orthodox Church is banned from service and churches are partially destructed.

During the meeting, Chechelashvili and Gugerotti discussed various questions that are to be discussed in the bilateral format. The Georgian diplomat expressed support to the Nnuncio in question of security of the Vatican Embassy, and promised help in tax payment for the humanitarian actions of Vatican in Georgia.