A top NATO official has met with the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Georgian Parliament in Lithuania and discussed Georgia’s prospects of joining the North Atlantic Alliance.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Georgia’s Tedo Japaridze he was pleased with the country’s progress.
"Georgia has shown significant progress during the last period. Among them include exceptional elections, court system reform and defense reform,” Rasmussen said.
The officials met in Vilnius at the Parliamentary Assembly Summer Session, which opened on May 30.
In response to Japaridze’s question on what more Georgia needed to do to become a member of NATO, and what NATO expected from Georgia in order to move to the next stage of relations, Rasmussen said Georgia had fulfilled many of its obligations and membership criteria to become a member of the Alliance.
"Of course this raises the question what this country could expect from the upcoming [NATO] summit,” Rasmussen stated.
"Currently we are in the process of assessing four aspirant countries and the NATO Foreign Affairs Minister will review the assessment reports at the end of June when he receives them. We hope that before this date we will reach a consensus as to if and how the NATO open-door policy will be enacted at the upcoming summit,” Rasmussen added.
He believed the achieved progress of NATO aspirant countries should be praised at the summit.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly called NATO member countries to fulfill a decision made at the 2008 Bucharest summit about Georgia becoming a member of the North Atlantic Alliance and receive a Membership Action Plan (MAP).
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly declaration, received on May 30, was recently published on NATO’s official webpage. The declaration stated NATO enlargement did not represent a threat for any country. On the contrary, it said NATO enlargement would increase security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly Summer Session opened on May 30 in Vilnius. Alongside Parliament representatives from the 28 Alliance member countries, representatives of the 14 partner country Parliaments and European Parliament are participating in the session.