U.S. Official on NATO-Georgia and Ties with Russia

The U.S. is committed to strengthening NATO’s relations with Georgia through the commission which was set up in September, 2008, Robert Wood, an acting spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said.

At a press briefing in Washington, Wood was asked whether the President Obama’s administration would support Georgia’s and Ukraine’s NATO membership as strongly as the previous administration.

The spokesman responded: “We will be looking at various issues. I mean, we’re still committed to improving and strengthening NATO’s relationship with both Ukraine and Georgia through the NATO-Georgia Commissions and the NATO-Ukraine Commissions, so that hasn’t changed.”

“But I don’t want to get ahead of where we may, at some point, go. And leave it at that,” Wood added.

When asked whether the new administration supported Membership Action Plan for Georgia and Ukraine or them joining the alliance, Wood responded: “You know Bucharest declaration [of NATO leaders in April, 2008], it’s very clear that those two countries will be members of NATO.”
 
“To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any change [in the position since the Bucharest summit]. And as I said, this Administration will be working with its other NATO allies to try to strengthen those relationships with Ukraine and Georgia through those commissions,” Wood added.

Speaking about Vice President Joe Biden’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, Wood said that that the Vice President underlined that although “there have been some real problems and difficulties” in relationship with Russia, “we need to go forward.”

These comments triggered a question about the State Department’s February 7 statement in which it expressed “regret” over Russia’s plans to build military bases in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The question, in particular, was about the wording of the statement involving “regret” rather than any other stronger formulation.

The spokesman was asked whether the wording basically meant that the Department of State was going “to mute certain protests over certain Russian actions;” Wood responded: “I didn’t say we were going to mute anything. I said the relationship is a very complex one, but we want to move forward.”

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