Georgia’s Accession to NATO Should Not Worry Russia – Says Shevardnadze

(Tbilisi, November 25, 2002. Civil Georgia) Georgian President is confident that Russia has no reason to worry about Georgia’s possible joining to the North Atlantic Alliance.

“There are no objective reasons for the Russian side to worry” – said President Shevardnadze in his Monday Radio Interview on November 25.

On November 22, at the NATO Summit in Prague – capital of the Check Republic – Shevardnadze has officially announced Georgia’s commitment to join the NATO. Before that Russian political circles have been sounding quite frequently their irritation with NATO’s plans to expand to Eats and accession of former socialist states to the organization.

As Shevardnadze said, until present Russia had much closer ties with NATO than Georgia. Besides this Russia is also a state-party to the NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program.

President Shevardnadze also mentioned that Russia and Georgia should continue close cooperation in various fields, including war against terrorism and joint protection of the common border.

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