The foreign ministers of Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are in Nauru in the hope it will lobby for their recognition as independent countries.
Tuvalu and Vanuatu quit their ties to the two small republics in 2014 and no new country has signed up to recognise the pair since.
The Director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University Rouben Azizian told Walter Zweifel the politics of the Caucasus region are complex and tied into larger rivalries.
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South Ossetia - a break-away republic of Georgia recognised by four countries as an independent state Photo: AFP