U.S. Official: NATO Decision a ‘Modest Progress’ for Georgia

Daniel Fried, the U.S. assistant secretary of state, said “we’ve made some progress at NATO – modest progress – but we are moving in the direction of Georgia’s integration into the Euro-Atlantic community.”

He said that now it was up to Georgia "to make reforms it has to make.”  

Fried was speaking with a group of Georgian journalists in Helsinki on December 5 after a meeting with the Georgian Foreign Minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, which was held on a sideline of the OSCE foreign ministerial council.

Fried also said that talks were still ongoing on the final declaration of the summit.

“Most delegations, in fact all the Europeans, I think the Georgians, the Americans, are all willing to accept the latest draft, which is not a perfect text… but nevertheless, in the spirit of attempting to have a declaration, we are willing to go along, but there is one delegation from a large country, which is not,” Fried said, apparently referring to the Russian delegation.

“We’ve worked very closely with our Georgian colleagues; they understand that this text is imperfect, but we are working well together,” he added.

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