Georgia’s Defense Minister is firm over MAP

Georgia’s recently appointed Defence Minister Tina Khidasheli stresses that Georgia expects Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the next general session of NATO. She claims that Georgia has already met all the criteria for the goal.

Khidasheli underscores that a repeated failure in this regard is very likely to cause disappointment in Georgia concerning the organization and make people skeptical towards NATO’s sincerity towards Georgia.

“I do not intend to change my tone and move to plan B. Everything should have its logical ending,” Khidasheli says, noting that the Georgian authorities reveal an identical approach to the topic.

“We need a new stage with NATO - we need it without additional preconditions as we have already met all the criteria,” Khidasheli added.

Head of Parliament’s Defense and Security Committee Irakli Sesiashvili has accepted the Minister’s vision and stated that Georgia should be “maximalist” on the way to NATO and EU membership.

“We have determined our path towards the Euro-Atlantic space and we should strive to the direction maximally,” Sesiashvili says.

Some analysts share the government’s optimism. Analyst Vakhtang Maisaia believes that Georgia might be granted MAP at the Warsaw Summit.

However, he says that much is dependent on the political situation rather than the fulfilling of obligations from the Georgian side in order to obtain MAP.

It is obvious that Georgians will no longer be happy with the “something better than the MAP” after each NATO meetings, when we are refused MAP once again.

What might be the outcome of a similar situation after the Warsaw summit has already been voiced by the Minister.