‘Do not Show Sign of Weakness’ – Saakashvili to NATO

President Saakashvili urged NATO not to show any “sign of weakness” and not to resist Georgian integration into NATO.

“If NATO sends a sign of weakness — and clearly this [Russian] invasion was intended to deter, to scare NATO away — if NATO gets scared away, then this will be a never-ending story,” Saakashvili said in an interview with The Associated Press on September 11.

“People are saying, ‘Georgia has conflicts, so maybe Georgia cannot be accepted, but maybe we can accept Ukraine.’ But if you put it this way, you automatically are going to get conflict in Ukraine.”

He said Russia’s actions were aimed at “shaking the foundations of the alliance and their decision-making process.”

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and ambassadors from the alliance’s 26 member states will visit Tbilisi on September 15-16.

The visitors and Georgian officials will convene the inaugural session of the NATO-Georgia Commission, as envisaged by a decision of NATO foreign ministers on August 19.

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