European Union monitors must be given access to Georgian separatist regions they have been blocked from entering despite being mandated to work there, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Friday.
"We will continue to demand the E.U. monitors' access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Bildt, whose country currently holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said on local television in comments that were translated into Georgian.
"The E.U. Monitoring Mission has a mandate to perform its duties in all of Georgia," Bildt told the Rustavi 2 network.
Bildt spent the day with E.U. monitors patrolling areas close to Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Western countries were continuing to press Russia, which supports the two rebel regions, on the issue of access for foreign monitors.
E.U. monitors carry out regular patrols along the de facto borders with Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of an E.U.-brokered ceasefire accord that ended a five-day war between Russia and Georgia last August.
Russia designated the two rebel regions independent countries in the aftermath of the conflict, and the pro-Russian authorities there have refused to allow the observers to enter.