Defense Minster Optimistic about Georgia’s MAP

Davit Kezerashvili, the Georgian defense minister, said on March 27 that he hoped NATO would “take the right decision” and extend its Membership Action Plan to Georgia at a summit in Bucharest on April 2-4.

“Despite some people [referring to skeptics] jabbering on about this, in a week we will have achieved our goal and all 26 [NATO-member] states will have taken the right decision and Georgia will have moved even closer to NATO membership,” Kezerashvili said.

He was speaking with reporters after meeting with his visiting Lithuanian counterpart, Juozas Olekas.

Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on March 27 that NATO officials had drafted two separate sets of declarations for the Bucharest summit – one containing offers of MAPs, the other not. The Financial Times Deutschland wrote MAP for Georgia and Ukraine would be postponed.

The U.S. national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, told reporters on March 26: “He [the U.S. president] is in consultation with his counterparts [from other NATO-member states]; those consultations continue. We believe — he believes that NATO should welcome the aspirations of these countries [Georgia and Ukraine] for NATO membership, and that in Bucharest it will result in a clear path forward.”

“So let me say that he [President Bush] is very forward-leaning on this issue. But, again, we respect the process that NATO has established, that we will continue consultations… and we will respect the fact that this is a decision that NATO makes by consensus at the summit. And he [the U.S. president] will be an active participant in those conversations.”

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