At present the Ecuadorian side is scrutinizing thoroughly the given materials - Sergey Shamba

SUKHUM -- Abkhazia hopes that the republic’s independence will be recognized by Ecuador in the near future, the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba said.

According to him, an official appeal with the request for the recognition of independence of Abkhazia was handed over to the President of Ecuador at the beginning of November right after he’d returned from Moscow.

"The Abkhazia’s envoy to Venezuela at our request has visited Ecuador and handed over to the President of this country Raphael Correa an official appeal with the request to consider the recognitions of Abkhazia", the foreign policy department head said.

"After that we made a decision to send a higher level delegation to this country and now the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia representatives led by the deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Maxim Gvindzhia are in Latin America", the Minister said.

S. Shamba said members of the delegation handed over to the President and the Parliament of "this country a number of materials about the history of Abkhazia, history of the conflict with Georgia".

"Our delegation has held meetings in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Parliament of Ecuador. The majority of this country’s MPs have supported independence of Abkhazia. The Ecuadorian side is now scrutinizing thoroughly the given materials and we hope will soon make a statement on this issue", S. Shamba said.

During his visit to Moscow on October 28-30 the President of Ecuador R. Correa declared that his country was ready to consider the recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia if they received such a request.