Still missing the target
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, October 24
Secretary General of NATO Anders Fog Rasmussen stated recently that in 2014, Georgia will not become a member of NATO. Of course, the Georgian political establishment and the population did not expect that Georgia’s NATO membership would take place. However, any such statement gives ground to NATO skeptics in Georgia to speculate that Georgia’s NATO aspiration is an illusion and that it has no chance, as NATO will never allow Georgia to enter the organization because of Russia.
Although the NATO Secretary General reiterated the commitment of the alliance to accept Georgia into NATO, Georgia remains cooperating with NATO in the Georgian-NATO council format only.
Chairperson of the Georgian parliamentary committee for Defense and Security, Irakli Sesiahsvili, while commenting on Rasmussen’s “verdict”, said that Georgia still has considerable homework to do and nobody expected Georgia to enter the alliance so quickly.
“We still have to implement a number of reforms for integration to NATO,” Sesiashvili stressed.
Georgian leadership has repeatedly confirmed that the country strives to join NATO. Therefore, it expects the alliance to make some kind of decision with some concrete dates. This would go a long way in mitigating the feelings of public frustration that has grown lately among the public.
Georgia tries its best to carry out the necessary legislative reforms in the country. It also takes the appropriate steps in satisfying the demands and requirements of NATO member countries. Multiple times it has been stated that Georgia is the highest contributor to Afghanistan peace keeping mission among the non-member countries.
Georgians expect that NATO will eventually announce a date for the Georgian dream to come true. Meanwhile, the sentiment of giving-up NATO membership aspiration is highly promoted by the pro-Russian forces within the Georgia political spectrum and some parts of Georgian civil society.