TBILISI: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday reiterated thebloc’s commitment to grant former Soviet republic Georgia eventualmembership despite Moscow’s fierce opposition.
Stoltenberg was in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to attend 12-day jointNATO-Georgia military exercises that kicked off last week.
“The 29 allies have clearly stated that Georgia will become a member ofNATO,” Stoltenberg told a news conference alongside the country’s PrimeMinister Mamuka Bakhtadze.
“We will continue working together to prepare for Georgia’s NATOmembership.”
In an apparent reference to Russia, he said that no country had the rightto influence NATO’s open-door policy.
“We are not accepting that Russia — or any other power — can decide what(NATO) members can do,” he said.
At a 2008 summit in Romania, NATO leaders said Georgia would join the blocat an unspecified future date but have so far refused to put the country ona formal path to membership.
The prospect of Georgia joining NATO is seen by the Kremlin as a Westernincursion into its traditional sphere of influence.
Bakhtadze said for his part that Moscow had no right to prevent a sovereigncountry from choosing “its security arrangements”.
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“NATO membership is the choice of the Georgian people and is enshrined inour constitution,” he said.
Held at the Krtsanisi Georgia-NATO Joint Training and Evaluation Centreoutside Tbilisi, the joint drills involve 350 servicemen from the US,Britain, France, Germany and 17 other allied nations as well as Azerbaijan,Finland, and Sweden.
Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow over Georgia’s pro-Western trajectoryand control of the Black Sea nation’s breakaway regions led to a brief butbloody war in 2008.
During the conflict over Moscow-backed separatist regions South Ossetia andAbkhazia, Russia routed Georgia’s small military in just five days andrecognised the independence of the breakaway territories.
Moscow then stationed military bases there in what the West and Tbilisihave denounced as an “illegal military occupation.”
Last year, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia’s eventualNATO entry “could provoke a terrible conflict”. – APP/AFP
