Tuvalu PM's wife hospitalized in Moscow with pneumonia - sources
MOSCOW. March 10 (Interfax) - The Tuvalu prime minister's wife was hospitalized in Moscow with pneumonia this week, medical sources told Interfax on Saturday.
Premier Willy Telavi's wife, who was put in Moscow's Central Clinic Hospital, had been accompanying her husband, who stopped over in Moscow on his way to Abkhazia, where he was heading as leader of a group of Tuvalu observers at local parliamentary elections on Saturday.
Telavi is in Abkhazia currently.
On Friday, Telavi and Abkhaz Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya signed an agreement on visa-exempt travel. The Tuvalu Chamber of Commerce signed a cooperation agreement with the Abkhaz Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Tuvalu recognized Abkhazia's independence in September 2011 in a move hailed by Russia but deplored by Georgia. In October, Russia and Tuvalu established diplomatic relations.
Georgia, which also established diplomatic relations with Tuvalu last year, deplored Tuvalu's recognition of Abkhazia as "a sad fact."
"The recognition of the so-called independence of Abkhazia by Tuvalu will not be able to change the reality, and facts of this kind are just an indication of how intensively Russia is working to force smaller states to recognize the so-called independence of the Georgian territories occupied by it," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister David Jalagania said in September.