In early November, 50 Georgian opposition MPs addressed NATO and EU member states calling for a unified stance against Russia’s plan to establish a permanent naval base in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, reads the BBC article by Rayhan Demytrie, Paul Brown and Joshua Cheetham.
The article highlights that the Kremlin’s plans have raised fears that the base could drag EU-hopeful Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine and harm Tbilisi’s own plans for a port on the Black Sea.
“We unanimously and firmly condemn Russia’s occupation, militarisation and other actions aimed at annexation of the occupied regions of Georgia, a new expression of which is the opening of a permanent Russian naval base in Ochamchire port,” read the MPs’ statement.
Weeks earlier Abkhazia’s de facto leader, Aslan Bzhania, had confirmed an agreement had been signed with the Kremlin on a permanent naval base in the Black Sea port of Ochamchire.
Abkhazia is internationally recognized as part of Georgia, but it has been under the control of Russian and separatist forces since the 1990s.
Georgia’s foreign ministry has condemned Russia’s plan as “a gross violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia”. However, authorities in Tbilisi have played down the significance of the permanent naval base, describing it as not an imminent threat.
“Even if they start constructing the base in Ochamchire, it will take them at least three years,” Nikoloz Samkharadze, the head of Georgia’s Foreign Relations Committee told the BBC. “We are concentrated on imminent threats, not threats that might come in the future.”
He says the government is more focused on Georgian citizens being killed or kidnapped by Russian forces near the line of occupation that separates Georgia from its breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“We do not observe any moves to start construction in Ochamchire.”
BBC Newsnight and BBC Verify have analyzed satellite imagery that indicates new dredging and construction work at the port, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency claims the work is to enable military vessels from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to use Ochamchire as a safe harbor.
If Russia were to use Ochamchire to attack Ukraine or if Ukraine chose to target Russian naval boats there, then Georgia would become party to the war, says Natia Seskuria of the Royal United Services Institute.
“If Putin needs Georgia to be involved or in some ways be dragged in this war, he will do it if it’s in his interests and he has all the capabilities to put pressure on Georgia, unfortunately,” she said.
“Not only does that play into Georgian fears of being sucked into the war, but there are concerns that Tbilisi’s own plans for a mega-infrastructure project on the Black Sea coast could be impeded.
“A deep sea port in Anaklia is the nearest Georgian town to Russian-controlled Abkhazia.
The Anaklia project is seen as vital for boosting commerce along the so-called Middle Corridor, the fastest route to deliver cargo between Asia and Europe.
The route avoids using Russia as a land conduit, and the World Bank has estimated that it could halve travel times and triple trade volumes by 2030,” reads the article.
Source: The BBC
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