The Georgian Foreign Ministry said Thursday Georgia has decided to suspend flights of unmanned spy planes over its breakaway region of Abkhazia, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The decision shows Georgia respects the highly professional conclusions of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia, the ministry said in a statement.
However, Georgia reserves the right to resume drone flights over Abkhazia "if provocative steps posing a threat to the Georgian state take place there again," it added.
The ministry said Georgia is concerned by Russia's moves, as Moscow "carried out an absolutely illegal military buildup in the Abkhazian region without consent from the Georgian government" and did it under the mandate of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping forces.
The UN mission in Georgia said on May 26 in a report that a Russian air force plane was responsible for shooting down the Georgian drone over Abkhazia on April 20, citing evidence of radar records and video footage. The report also said the Georgian drone flight violated a ceasefire agreement.
Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been seeking independence and sovereignty since the early 1990s, have long been a source of tension between Russia and Georgia.
Source:Xinhua
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