Georgian Officials Hail NATO Decision

Officials in Tbilisi said that NATO foreign ministers’ decision marked Georgia’s yet another step closer to NATO membership.

“We managed to make a step forward,” Giorgi Baramidze, the Georgian state minister for Euro-Atlantic integration issues told journalists in Tbilisi, on December 3. “This is not MAP [Membership Action Plan], but it is an important element, which brings us closer to the alliance and which enables us to implement the essential and important process of reforms in all the spheres under NATO standards.”

NATO foreign ministers have decided to empower newly set up NATO-Georgia Commission to intensify cooperation between Tbilisi and the alliance, “without prejudice to any further decisions” on Membership Action Plan (MAP).

Georgian Prime Minister, Grigol Mgaloblishvili, told a government session on December 3, that “new approaches” towards Georgia’s NATO membership had been set up and the NATO-Georgia Commission would play “the central role” in this process.

Georgian Foreign Minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, told Georgian journalists in Brussels on December 2 that the NATO-Georgia Commission would now become a focal point of the integration process.

Her deputy, Nino Kalandadze, told journalists in Tbilisi on December 3, that the decision was a sign that NATO had “appreciated Georgia’s efforts towards democratic development.”

The NATO foreign ministers have also agreed to develop Annual National Program for Georgia, details of which have yet to be specified.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kalandadze also said that annual assessments would be made based on the Annual National Program in framework of NATO-Georgia Commission.

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