Georgia Hands Over Annual Programme to NATO

Robert Simmons, NATO’s special representative for South Caucasus and Central Asia, received from the Georgian government in Tbilisi on May 25, the country’s Annual National Programme (ANP).

The document, which is not public, is, as NATO diplomat said, “a roadmap” for Georgia’s eventual NATO membership.

“It is a way ahead with an ultimate goal, that is very clear; but how long that will take that’s obviously something we can’t say at this stage in the process,” Simmons said at a joint news conference with Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze.

He said ANP was “an ambitious” document laying out Georgia’s reform targets.

Georgia’s eventual membership, he said, depended on “decisions in Georgia, how they carry forward reforms and decisions in NATO.”

He said that Georgia’s progress in the line with ANP would be assessed by NATO member states in the end of this year.

Simmons said that one of the aspects of the document was “domestic reform.”

“NATO is following domestic events in Georgia,” he said. “I think in general we are satisfied with the response of the Georgian government to those events and they are consistent with the reform commitments they have made in their Annual National Programme.”

“I think that restraint they have shown in dealing with demonstrations… is positive. The fact that the government has opened discussions with opposition is also a positive step,” Simmons added.

He also said that NATO remained concerned over the situation in connection with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“We remain concerned about the situation in the region we continue to call upon Russia to fulfill it commitments to return to status quo prior to the conflict in August and that remains major part of our dialogue with Russia even as we resume it,” NATO diplomat said.

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