Georgia has no plans to undertake “unilateral steps without prior agreement” with NATO, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in an information note issued after talks between Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels on September 15.
Issues related with Georgia”s NATO integration and resolution of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts have reportedly topped the agenda of the meeting.
“The NATO Secretary General has emphasized the strong position of the alliance that no other third party can interfere in NATO-Georgian relations,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
“We are now waiting for a very important decision whether Georgia will be allowed to move into the “Intensified Dialogue” stage with NATO, which is actually the first step towards NATO-membership,” Gela Bezhuashvili said.
During his visit to Brussels on September 14-15, the Georgian Foreign Minister met with the top officials from the EU and NATO.
Bezhuashvili said that during the talks he informed EU and NATO officials about Tbilisi’s position that the current Russian-led peacekeeping operations in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are failing to contribute to a peaceful solution of the conflict.
“There is an understanding in these institutions [EU and NATO] that it is necessary to carry out changes [in the peace process]: this should happen on the basis of direct talks between the conflicting sides with more active participation of international organizations in this process,” Bezhuashvili said.
“We made it clear that it is impossible to solve conflicts peacefully in the framework of existing formats,” he added.
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