Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
A session of the NATO-Georgia Committee at the level of foreign ministers took place in Brussels. The Georgian Foreign Minister Maya Pandzhikidze didn’t manage to hear an answer to the question whether Tbilisi would get MAP on joining the alliance at the upcoming summit in Wales.
The session of the NATO-Georgia Council lasted for an hour. (The body was founded after the five-day war in 2008 for “discussion of reforms in the military sphere and development of democratic institutes in Georgia”). The Secretary General of the alliance Anders Fogh Rasmussen emphasized that the committee gathered in the context of developments in Ukraine, while the situation in Crimea “has confirmed once again importance of following the principle of territorial integrity.”
Pointing out progress in holding reforms in Georgia, the Secretary General stated about necessity of close cooperation between the authorities and the opposition, hinting on a scandal over calling in the former president Mikhail Saakashvili for questioning to the prosecution.
“Your country is a model for all other countries of the region,” the head of the alliance said. Perhaps he meant that no other state of the region has addressed NATO to become a member of the alliance, while Ukraine under Yanukovich rejected its request.
The events in Ukraine influenced the discussion of Georgian affairs. The head of the German diplomacy Steinmeier admitted that NATO “saw the similar events in 2008 in Georgia, and now the situation in Ukraine is the same.”
Maya Padzhikidze didn’t touch on granting MAP to Georgia at the summit in Wales in her speech. Recently Barack Obama has stated that Georgia is not on the path to the alliance. Tbilisi interpreted the statement as the final refusal to Georgia.
