Saakashvili Comments on NATO

Georgia has reached “a very important historic stage” in its progress towards NATO integration ahead of a NATO summit in Bucharest in April, President Saakashvili said on February 26.

“What we all, and even me, believed to be utopian two or three years ago, has become real today,” he told a group of Georgian veterans of the armed conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“A NATO summit will be held in Bucharest in April, where Membership Action Plans (MAP) for Georgia and Ukraine will be discussed along with other issues. This is a very important historical stage for our country. On March 7 the NATO Council of Ministers will gather in Brussels to make preliminary decisions on the issue,” he said. “I know unfortunately both inside and outside Georgia there are forces either openly or secretly hampering this process. They are traveling abroad and saying that it is impossible, that Georgia is not ready for it and so on. But I think that our people have expressed their will in the [January 5] plebiscite and this will is irreversible. Why do we need NATO membership? We need it because Georgia should be strategically protected in this very difficult and risky region. It should become a full member of the strongest alliance in the history of mankind; Georgia should contribute to this alliance and receive its share of security guarantees. A certain period of time should pass from NATO candidacy to NATO membership, but granting Membership Action Plan would mean that the process is irreversible. This is very important for all of us.”