Estonian PM: Georgian Leadership Doesn’t Believe in NATO Membership

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in an interview with RFL/RL that she believes the Georgian leadership is not pushing the NATO membership agenda. She was discussing the prospects for progress on the NATO membership path for Ukraine and Georgia ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius on 11-12 July. The interview provided a rare insight into the current perception of Georgia’s NATO integration process from an Ally and long-time supporter of Georgia’s accession to the Alliance.

When asked how she sees the situation in Georgia right now, including in the context of the NATO integration process, Estonian PM said: “It’s complicated”. She compared Georgia to where Ukraine was years ago “when they had Orange Revolution”, explaining: “They widely considered Europe as their future, but that [this] requires reforms.” She added that there is a “complicated relationship between the government and the people on the streets”.

Asked further why she thinks Ukraine and Georgia, which “used to go hand in hand when it came to NATO, seem to have decoupled”, Kaja Kallas said she thinks it is because “the leadership of Georgia right now doesn’t really believe in that [NATO membership], so they don’t really push that agenda that much.”

She recalled that Georgian Prime Minister Garibashvili at the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava “said that NATO is at fault for the war in Ukraine”, even though, as Estonian Prime Minister stressed “NATO is a defense alliance. She stressed that neither NATO nor Ukraine had done anything to provoke a Russian attack.

She also noted that “even Prigozhin [the leader of the Russian mercenary Group “Wagner”] said that it’s a false narrative.”  So, Kallas concluded: “Clearly from his [Garibashvili] speech [at GLOBSEC], it was felt they [Georgian leadership] don’t believe in that.”

On the other hand, she spoke of the Ukrainian push for the NATO membership, stressing it is important that the Alliance goes “beyond Bucharest wording” at the Summit, and proposes practical steps on how to “get Ukraine into NATO.” She said it is important to have a “clear pathway” at this stage, noting that the accession would happen after the war is over. She emphasized: “We should end the grey zones in Europe because they are sources of conflict and war. So, if we want to have peace NATO membership is the only and the cheapest security guarantee.”

Also Read:

• 19/06/2023  – Diverging Paths? Ukraine and Georgia at NATO Vilnius Summit
• 03/06/2023 – Georgia and NATO Ahead of Vilnius Summit: Where did the Spark Go?

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)