We want NATO membership, not MAP
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, May 30
Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikheil Janelidze says Georgia wants full NATO membership, and the Membership Action Plan, which Georgia has been due for years, is no longer a goal.
The Minister made the statement in his speech on May 28 within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Tbilisi, held on May 26-29. .
Janelidze claimed that to earn its membership, Georgia effectively used instruments such as the NATO-Georgia Commission, Annual National Plan and the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package.
NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Paolo Alli told the Georgian news agency IPN that the NATO resolution which will be approved in Georgia will envisage a recommendation that there will be ‘certain evolution’ concerning MAP for Georgia.
He maintained that Georgia would become a NATO member but no precise time can be given.
The international environment, particularly the Russian factor, should also be taken into account, he said.
“We have clear in our mind that the Bucharest declaration is very clear, and Georgia will become a NATO member in the future. As for its time, it is not clear yet how this process will go on but for sure I think that the final point is that Georgia becomes a member of NATO and now we have to speed up all the conditions and build the conditions which makes it possible in the shortest time.
“Of course we have to take international environment into consideration. I personally think that we could see some evolution maybe after the presidential election in Russia. Because I see Mr. Putin is keeping tension very high today because he needs support inside his country. It also depends on how he will be re-elected,” he stated.
Alli continued on to say that Russian internal policy is very much connected with foreign policy, and “I am certainly not expecting there will be significant changes in Mr. Putin’s foreign policy but I’m saying that the increasing tensions we are observing in the last months here and in Ukraine are in my opinion connected with Russia’s presidential elections.”
