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January 30, 2018

All About Nagorno-Karabakh’s 2017 Name Change

Map of the self declared Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) in relation to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Includes capital cities Yerevan, Baku, and Stepanakert.

Map by Evan Centanni, modified from this map by Bourrichon and Lesqual. License: CC BY-SA

Nagorno-Karabakh is Now “Artsakh”

Most country name changes are just modifications to the country’s official long name, or a switch in the name’s preferred English translation. But last year, one self-proclaimed country changed its title completely.

In February 2017, the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic officially became the “Republic of Artsakh“. The name switch was part of a new constitution, approved in an internationally-controversial Feb. 20 referendum. According to the breakaway government’s official figures, the referendum passed by 88%, with a voter turnout of 76%.

What is Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh?

The status of the so-called Republic of Artsakh is a matter of hot dispute. According to the UN and all its member countries, Nagorno-Karabakh was never officially a country at all. The region is claimed by Azerbaijan and labeled a disputed territory by the international community, but it declared independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union, and has been ruled separately from Azerbaijan since the early 1990s.

In terms of military defense and day-to-day administration, Artsakh is heavily integrated with neighboring Armenia (most people living there are culturally Armenian). But the region’s government officially considers itself an independent country, and Armenia maintains a formal separation, neither recognizing Artsakh’s independence nor making it officially part of Armenia.

The only formal recognition of Artsakh’s independence comes from three other unrecognized, self-proclaimed countries – Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria – plus a long list of local governments inside the US who have made symbolic declarations of support (presumably at the urging of that country’s Armenian political lobby).

Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh: Both Names Accepted

The name “Republic of Artsakh” didn’t come out of nowhere – in fact, it was already an official alternate name for the claimed country. The new constitution basically just switches the two names’ places:

	Before	After
Main Name in Constitution	Nagorno-Karabakh Republic	Republic of Artsakh
Official Alternate Name	Artsakh Republic	Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh

The old constitution declares that the two names are “the same”, and the new one similarly states that both official titles “are identical”. “Artsakh Republic” is also still in use by some official sources, probably as an alternate English translation. Minor spelling variants seen in government sources include “Nagorno Karabakh” (without the hyphen) and “Nagorno Karabagh”.

What Does “Artsakh” Mean, and Why Choose it Over “Nagorno-Karabakh”?

“Artsakh” is probably easier to remember and pronounce for most people, but the change is also related to the history of the two names. “Nagorno-Karabakh” is actually the Russian name of the region, from when it was part of the Soviet Union, but the “Karabakh” part is based on its name in the Azerbaijani language (likely coming from ancient words meaning “Black Garden“).

The territory now being disputed is the highland area of the historic Karabakh region, with the Russian word “nagorno” (or “nagorny”) added on signify that. In other words, “Nagorno-Karabakh” means “Upper Karabakh” in Russian.

“Artsakh”, on the other hand, is a thoroughly Armenian name for the territory. Though the actual origin of the word has been lost to history, it was the undisputed name of an Armenian province that occupied the area from ancient times into the Middle Ages. Given that, it’s no surprise that this name is preferred by the Armenia-oriented government of the disputed republic, or by its culturally Armenian majority population.

Flag of the autonomous community of Catalonia

Short Name:
• Artsakh (English, Armenian)
• Dağlıq Qarabağ (Azerbaijani)
Alternate Short Name:
• Nagorno-Karabakh (English)
• Lerrnayin Gharabagh (Armenian)
Full Declared Name:
• Republic of Artsakh (English)
• Artsakhi Hanrapetut’yun (Armenian)
Alternate Full Name:
• Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (English)
• Lernayin Gharabaghi Hanrapetut’yun (Armenian)
Capital: Stepanakert
Status According to Azerbaijan: Armenia-occupied area of Azerbaijan

When Did The Name Change Officially Happen?

When a fully-recognized country, like the Czech Republic, changes its name, it’s fairly simple to the confirm that the change has gone into effect: It soon gets registered in UN databases and the ISO standard list of country codes and names. But for a disputed breakaway region like Artsakh, there’s no such official international documentation.

As with Malawi’s 2012 flag change, we at PolGeoNow were unsure at first if the change had officially come into effect yet – part of the reason we haven’t published an article until now. News outlets reported on Nagorno-Karabakh’s Feb. 20 referendum, but none seemed to say when the change would actually become official (at least, not in English).

So we dug a little deeper, learning that the official law authorizing the referendum says:

[The changes will] enter into force from the moment of publishing the drafts in the “Official Bulletin of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic” within five days after announcing the resolution of the Central Commission or the Supreme Court on the results of the the [sic] Referendum.

We couldn’t find the Official Bulletin in English online, but a declaration on the final referendum results from the Central Electoral Commission is dated to February 23. This seems to suggest that the official name change happened within five days of that, by February 28, 2017. Confirming that the new name has been adopted, the official website of the republic’s president is using “Artsakh”, even though some other government websites haven’t yet changed their headers.

PolGeoNow reports on every country name change that happens in the world! To see the full list, view all country name change articles.

Graphic of the flag of the Republic of Artsakh is in the public domain (source).

July 29, 2016

Map: Liberia and Afghanistan Join WTO

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Map of World Trade Organization (WTO) member and observer countries, updated for August 2016 to include new members Liberia and Afghanistan (labeled). Color blind accessible.

Map by Evan Centanni, from public domain blank map.

Additional reporting by Caleb Centanni

Two New WTO Member Countries

This month two more countries are joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), a global body founded in 1995 to promote the management and expansion of international trade. Liberia officially became the WTO’s 163rd member on July 14, and Afghanistan joins the list as member number 164 on July 29. The last new member to join the WTO was Kazakhstan in November of last year.

Joining the WTO requires a country to sign onto a set of free trade treaties managed by the organization, and to change its laws to follow the WTO’s rules for free market trade. In return, each member country gets access to cheaper trade with all the other members, who aren’t allowed to play favorites when deciding whose imports to tax or not tax.

Organization Name:
• World Trade Organization (English)
• Organisation mondiale du commerce (French)
• Organización Mundial del Comercio (Spanish)
Founded: 1994 in Marrakech, Morocco (commenced in 1995)
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Website: www.wto.org

A diverse West African nation, Liberia declared independence in 1847, making it the oldest continuously independent country in Africa today. Liberia’s admission to the WTO comes after almost 10 years of negotiation, getting official approval to join in December 2015 and submitting its ratified acceptance of membership on June 14 of this year.

Afghanistan, located along the ancient Silk Road on the border of South and Central Asia, is about the 40th largest country in the world by both area and population. Afghanistan was also approved for membership last December, and submitted its ratified membership acceptance on June 29, after 11 years of negotiations.

How Many Countries are in the WTO?

Of the 195 UN-recognized countries in the world, 160 (82%) are members of the WTO. Another four members are not UN-recognized nations: China’s self-governed territories of Hong Kong and Macau, the European Union, and the disputed state of Taiwan, which participates under the name “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei)”.

There are also 20 WTO “observers”, down from 22 now that Liberia and Afghanistan have become full members. These countries are partially included in the organization, and have all applied for full membership (except the Holy See administration of Vatican City, which doesn’t plan to). There are only 15 UN-recognized countries that are neither members nor observers of the WTO.

Two countries, East Timor and Somalia, submitted membership applications last year, but don’t yet have WTO observer status.

More: View all articles on new WTO member countries since 2011

WTO logo is displayed without permission, based on fair use principles (source).

December 11, 2015

Map: Kazakhstan Joins WTO

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Map of World Trade Organization (WTO) member and observer countries, updated for December 2015 to include new member Kazakhstan

Member and observer states of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Map by Evan Centanni, starting from public domain blank map (license: CC BY-NC-SA).

Additional reporting by Caleb Centanni

Kazakhstan Joins WTO
On November 30, Kazakhstan officially became the 162nd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a global body founded in 1995 to promote the management and expansion of international trade. Kazakhstan was accepted by the organization in July, and membership was ratified by the Kazakh parliament on October 31 (membership takes effect 30 days after ratification). Kazakhstan is the second country to join the WTO in 2015, after Seychelles became a member in April.

More: All PolGeoNow articles on WTO admissions since 2011

Kaz akhstan is a landlocked former Soviet republic located mainly in Central Asia, though a small part of it is technically in Europe (depending on your definition). It’s the ninth-largest country in the world by area, and the biggest economic power in the Central Asia region, where several of the world’s few remaining non-WTO countries are located. Kazakhstan’s admission to the WTO comes after almost 20 years of negotiation and various economic reforms that made it more friendly to international business.

Of the 195 UN-recognized countries in the world, 158 (about 81%) are members of the WTO. Another four members are not UN-recognized nations: the China-administered territories of Hong Kong and Macau, the European Union, and the disputed state of Taiwan, which participates under the name “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei)”.

There are also 22 WTO “observers”, down from 23 now that Kazakhstan has become a full member. These observer countries are partially included in the organization, and have all applied for membership (except the Holy See administration of Vatican City, which does not plan to). There are only 15 UN-recognized countries that are neither members nor observers of the WTO.

WTO logo is displayed without permission, based on fair use principles (source).

May 15, 2015

Map: Another Country Joins the “Eurasian Union” (May 2015)

Map of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), also known as the Eurasian Union. Includes new member Kyrgyzstan, as well as prior members Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia, and disputed territory Crimea

The Eurasian Economic Union’s five current member countries, plus disputed Crimea, claimed to be part of Russia. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this map by Keverich2. License: CC BY-SA

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Article by Evan Centanni

Kyrgyzstan Joins EEU
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU, EAU, or EAEU), a new Russia-led free trade area, just welcomed Kyrgyzstan as a new member on May 8. The EEU, sometimes known as the “Eurasian Union” for short (or in reference to its possible future direction), officially launched at the beginning of this year, but has been in development since several years ago. The union has four other member countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia.

More: What is the “Eurasian Union”?

Flag of the Eurasian Economic Union (aka EEU, EAU, or Eurasian Union)

Country Name:
• Kyrgyzstan (English, Kyrgyz)
• Kirgiziya (Russian)
Official Name:
• Kyrgyz Republic (English)
• Kyrgyz Respublikasy (Kyrgyz)
• Kyrgyzskaya Respublika (Russian)
Capital: Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan started the process of joining the EEU last summer, and its entry in the organization has been delayed twice, allegedly due to last-minute hang-ups in the negotiations. The small central Asian country finally signed on as a full member last Friday, at a summit meeting of the leaders from all five member countries.

To ease economically-struggling Kyrgyzstan’s entry into the EEU, Russia has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, for his part, has been enthusiastic about joining the union, and Russia-bound migrant workers are optimistic about the change. However, many Kyrgyz citizens are concerned that EEU rules favoring trade between the organization’s members could hamper trade and investment from neighboring China.

Graphic of the Kyrgyz flag is in the public domain (source).

April 22, 2015

What is the “Eurasian Union”? (Map)

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, sometimes simply called the “Eurasian Union”, was officially launched at the beginning of this year. Read on for a brief introduction to this major new regional organization, which you can expect to hear a lot more about in the coming months and years!

Map of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), also known as the Eurasian Union. Includes new member Armenia, as well as prior members Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and disputed territories Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as acceding member Kyrgyzstan.

The Eurasian Economic Union’s four current member countries, plus disputed territories officially or unofficially included in the common market. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this map by Keverich2. License: CC BY-SA

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Article by Karina Barquet

Eurasian Economic Union
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU, EAU, or EAEU) was officially launched on the 1st of January, 2015 by member countries Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan, with Kyrgyzstan awaiting membership next month. The goal of the union is to allow for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor among the member countries.

The EEU operates through supranational and intergovernmental institutions including the Eurasian Commission, which serves as the executive body, the Court of the EEU, which acts as the judicial body, and the Eurasian Development Bank. All member states are said to retain full sovereignty and have the same veto power, despite the fact that Russia has financed up to 88% of the organization’s administration.

Organization Name:
• Eurasian Economic Union (English)
• Yevraziyskiy Ekonomicheskiy Soyuz (Russian)
• Jeŭrazijski Ekanamičny Sajuz (Belorussian)
• Ewrazïyalıq Ékonomïkalıq Odaq (Kazakh)
• Yevrasiakan Tntesakan Miut’yun (Armenian)
Launched: Treaty signed My 2014 in Astana, Kazakhstan; effective January 1, 2015
Headquarters:
• Moscow, Russian (Commission)
• Minsk, Belarus (Court)
• Almaty, Kazakhstan (Development Bank)
Website: eaeunion.org

The EEU is built upon less-extensive cooperation previously established in 2007 through the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and in 2012 through the Common Economic Space.

Shared Economy
The union has a population of over 170 million people and a GDP of nearly $2.5 trillion, making it the largest common market in the ex-Soviet region. Energy sources constitute the strongest grounds for EEU cooperation. This is no surprise, given that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan share over 20% of the world’s gas resources and 16% of its oil, in addition to being strong producers of electricity and holding large reserves of coal, steel, and iron ore. According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, over 100 agreements to develop a common oil and gas market are expected to be signed in the EEU during 2015.

Iran, Argentina, Egypt, China and India have reportedly already expressed interest in establishing cooperation and creating a free trade zone with the EEU in the future. Recently, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union (EU) proposed that the EU renounce the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States to instead enter a partnership and establish a free trade zone with the EEU.

Towards Greater Integration
Although the EEU is currently intended to be a purely economic cooperation block, the union is considered to be Russia’s most ambitious attempt at integrating the region that once formed part of the Soviet Union. Its creation has not been universally welcomed, with some outside obervers seeing the integration process as a symbol of aggressive Russian policy, particularly following Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, whose new government chose not to seek EEU membership.

Graphic of the EEU flag is in the public domain (source).

November 20, 2014

Portuguese Community Admits New Member & Observer Countries (Map)

Map of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), including both member states and associated observers. Updated for the July 2014 summit, which admitted new member Equatorial Guinea and new associate observers Georgia, Japan, Namibia, and Turkey (colorblind accessible).

Map by Evan Centanni, starting from public domain blank map (license: CC BY-NC-SA).

Premium members click here to view this article in the ad-free members area. Not a member yet? Subscribe now!

Article by Karina Barquet

Flag of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (aka Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, CPLP)

Organization Name:
• Community of Portuguese Language Countries (English)
• Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (English – alternative name)
• Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (Portuguese)
Founded: 1996 in Lisbon, Portugal
Headquarters: Lisbon, Portugal
Website: www.cplp.org

New Member Country for CPLP
The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (known by the Portuguese acronym CPLP) welcomed a new member this year. Equatorial Guinea joined the organization following its approval at the 10th CPLP Heads of State Summit in Dili, East Timor on July 23, 2014.

The CPLP is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation amongst countries where Portuguese is an official language. It was founded in 1996 with seven member countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined the community in 2002 after gaining independence.

New Observer Countries
In addition to new member Equatorial Guinea, the CPLP’s July 2014 summit also admitted four new Associate Observer countries: Georgia, Japan, Namibia, and Turkey. These joined the two previously-admitted Associate Observers, Mauritius and Senegal.

Equatorial Guinea is a small country located in Central Africa. Its name reflects the country’s location near both the equator and the Gulf of Guinea. Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony, and Spanish is the first official language, followed by French. A new law drafted in 2011 declared Portuguese the third official language in the country, though it is unclear whether that law ever went into effect.

The push to adopt Portuguese as an official language was a result of President Obiang’s efforts in 2007 to improve communications, trade, and bilateral relations with Portuguese-speaking countries, and to meet an important requirement to become a full member of the CPLP. Other requirements for joining CPLP included political reforms to give room for effective democracy and respect for human rights.

The 10th Summit also saw the reincorporation of Guinea-Bissau as a full member of the CPLP, after its suspension following a coup d’etat in April 2012. Guinea-Bissau was readmitted in the wake of the country’s recent presidential and legislative elections, and the transition of the CPLP’s presidency from President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, to the President of East Timor, Matan Ruak, who will be in office for the next two years.

Low-resolution graphic of the CPLP flag is displayed under fair use principles (source).

October 14, 2014

Map: “Eurasian Union” Gets New Member

The Eurasian Economic Union’s four member countries, plus disputed territories that might be officially or unofficially included. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this map by Keverich2. License: CC BY-SA

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Article by Evan Centanni

Armenia Joins Eurasian Economic Union
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), widely seen as a Russian-led answer to the European Union (EU), just welcomed its fourth member country. Armenia, a small former Soviet republic in the Caucasus region of Western Asia, joined Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in the trade bloc after signing the organization’s founding treaty last Friday, October 10. However, the EEU, which will unite the four member countries’ economies into a single cooperatively-managed entity, doesn’t officially go into effect until New Year’s Day (January 1, 2015).

Country Name:
• Armenia (English)
• Hayastan (Armenian)
Official Name:
• Republic of Armenia (English)
• Hayastani Hanrapetutyun (Armenian)
Capital: Yerevan

What is the “Eurasian Union”?
Though sometimes called just the “Eurasian Union”, the EEU is for now strictly economic in nature. Russia has shown interest in eventually expanding it into a political union to match the EU – however, that path is unpopular with fellow founding member Kazakhstan, which sees political union as a threat to the independence it gained after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The economic union hopes to increase trade and lower prices by establishing a “Single Economic Space,” where goods, services, money, and people can all move freely from country to country without the obstruction of borders or import taxes. Industrial development, agriculture, and transportation will also be managed cooperatively, and people from one country will be able to live and work in any of the other countries without a visa.

What’s the difference: Eurasian Economic Union, EURASEC, and the Customs Union
Though the EEU has not yet gone into effect, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are already united in an organization called “the Customs Union“. This union partially combines the countries’ economies by replacing customs checks along their mutual borders with a unified customs policy for all imports coming into the three-country bloc. Armenia is apparently still not a member of the Customs Union, though the issue will presumably become moot on January 1, when the Customs Union is replaced with the new EEU.

The EEU is not the same thing as the Eurasian Economic Community (EURASEC), an earlier attempt at economic integration among former Soviet countries. EURASEC includes more countries than the EEU, but its members’ economies are not closely unified. The EEU in many ways grew out of the broader organization, and the member countries have agreed to dissolve EURASEC once the EEU comes into force on January 1, 2015.

Armenia’s Path to Membership
Armenia had originally sought to join the Customs Union this past spring, in advance of the EEU treaty coming into effect. However, its membership has been repeatedly delayed. Many suspect this was because of disagreements with the current Customs Union member countries over the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an Armenian-backed breakaway state that the rest of the world considers to be part of the neighboring ex-Soviet country of Azerbaijan. Even Armenia doesn’t officially recognize Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared independence in 1991, but makes no secret of being the breakaway state’s main supporter.

Map of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic relative to Armenia and Azerbaijan

The breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)
Orange: Former NK Autonomous region in USSR
White: Current NKR territorial control
(public domain map by VartanM and Kmusser; source)

Because Armenia doesn’t maintain any border checks along its boundary with Nagorno-Karabakh, questions have been raised about whether the disputed territory will become an unofficial part of the EEU along with Armenia. With the other EEU members insisting Nagorno-Karabakh can’t be part of the union, and Armenia insisting it won’t set up border checks, it’s unclear how this issue will be resolved.

Meanwhile, another disputed territory will almost certainly be treated as part of the EEU, and officially at that. Crimea, recognized by the rest of the world as part of Ukraine, came under Russian control after a hostile takeover earlier this year. Since Russia, the most powerful member of the new EEU, considers Crimea a legitimate part of its territory, it seems unlikely the region will be excluded in any way from the new economic union.

Graphic of the Armenian flag is in the public domain (source).

March 6, 2013

Map: Laos and Tajikistan Join WTO

Map of World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries, updated for March 2013 to include new members Laos and Tajikistan

World Trade Organization members in green. New members Laos and Tajikistan highlighted (click to enlarge). Map by Evan Centanni, modified from this Wikimedia map by Muso (license: CC BY-SA).

World Trade Organization Continues Growing
The World Trade Organization (WTO), a global treaty-based organization formed in 1995 to manage and promote international trade, has admitted two new members in recent weeks. This follows the previous admission of four new members last year (which had been approved at the end of 2011).

Laos, a landlocked communist state in Southeast Asia, was approved for membership last October, after 15 years of unsuccessful efforts to join. The country, whose economy is very small but growing rapidly, officially became a member of the WTO on February 2nd. Laos was the last mainland Southeast Asian country to join the organization, meaning the entire region is now represented in the global body.

Tajikistan, a former soviet country in Central Asia, joined the WTO last weekend (March 2nd) after a 12-year-long campaign. The small country, which is also landlocked like Laos, was approved for membership in December. It is the second of the five ex-soviet Central Asian countries to join the organization, after Kyrgyzstan.

The World Trade Organization now has 159 members, including about 80% of the world’s countries, plus a few which are not independent countries, such as Hong Kong and the European Union (each of the EU’s members also has its own separate membership).

WTO logo is displayed without permission, based on fair use principles (source).

August 21, 2011

Abkhazia Recognized by Vanuatu

Country Name: Abkhazia (English), Apsny (Abkhaz), Abkhaziya (Russian)
Official Name: Republic of Abkhazia
News Category: Partially Recognized States, Diplomatic Recognition
Summary: The disputed breakaway state of Abkhazia has gained diplomatic recognition from Vanuatu, the fifth U.N. member to acknowledge its independence from Georgia.

Abkhazia (purple stripes) and South Ossetia (gold stripes), and their

claimed location within Georgia. Wikimedia map by Ssolbergj (CC BY-SA).

Full Story
The Republic of Abkhazia is one of seven states in the world which are recognized by some U.N. members, but not by the U.N. as a whole. Located in the Caucasus region on the border between Europe and Asia, Abkhazia is considered part of Georgia by most U.N. members; however, it has enjoyed de facto independence since winning a war of secession against the larger country in 1993. It has shared much of its fate with South Ossetia, another breakaway state which also seceded from Georgia around the same time. Abkhazia and South Ossetia passed their first decade and a half of independence without the recognition of any U.N. members. That changed after a 2008 war in which Georgia attempted to take back the two breakaway states by force, and was repelled by Russian forces. In the aftermath of the war, both Abkhazia and South Ossetia received diplomatic recognition from Russia, as well as from the Central American Republic of Nicaragua. The next year, South America’s Venezuela and the Pacific island country of Nauru followed suit. The two breakaway republics are also recognized by each other and at least two other non-U.N. member states.

U.N. members recognizing Abkhazia shown in green. Vanuatu circled in green, Abkhazia circled in pink.
Modified from this map by Wikimedia user NuclearVacuum (license: CC BY-SA).

This summer, Abkhazia received recognition from a fifth U.N. member, the Republic of Vanuatu. For the first time, South Ossetia was not recognized along with Abkhazia. Vanuatu is a Pacific island country of a quarter-million people, formerly known as the New Hebrides, which won independence from Britain and France in 1980. Vanuatu’s recognition of Abkhazia this year was accompanied by a great deal of confusion. Negotiated in secret between the two states, the recognition agreement was first announced to the public at the end of May. However, government officials in Vanuatu gave differing reports on whether or not the agreement existed, with confirmation finally coming on June 7. Making things even more complicated, Vanuatu’s temporary prime minister withdrew recognition of Abkhazia on June 19, but it was reinstated on July 12 after the return of the permanent head of government.

Wikipedia: Abkhazia, Vanuatu, International Recognition of Abkhazia & South Ossetia