NATO official: Georgia did “an extremely good job”
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Georgia has done "an extremely good job” of becoming interoperable with NATO, the Alliance’s top military commander says.
United States Air Force General Philip Breedlove believed some of the nations who aspired to join the Alliance, Georgia included, had improved their "programs of engagement”.
Breedlove, who is NATO's Supreme Allied Europe Commander and Commander of US forces in Europe, made his remarks at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank’s event, which discussed the results reached at this month’s NATO Wales Summit.
"Georgia has deployed a very constant and high level of forces in support in Afghanistan and in other places,” he said.
"I don’t want to sound too positive but what we thought was going to be the ceiling of what we could get at Wales became the floor of what we can expect in the future,” Breedlove said.
Asked about reassurances to the countries which were not yet NATO members, Breedlove said this was an issue the West had to consider.
"Right now there is no NATO policy on what to do in those nations that find themselves outside the Alliance but not in the Russian Federation,” he said.
The General said NATO had "absolutely reaffirmed” at the Summit that the door was still open.
"No one moved through the door in the Summit but several have their programs of engagement improved,” Breedlove said.
"And most notably Ukraine and Georgia clearly as well had their programs improved.”
He believed there were "lots of things that nations have to do to come across these barriers into NATO”.
"So what I see is nations continuing to move towards their goal or have already probably in some cases met the military expectation that we have for their entry into NATO and now some of the more political issues are being worked out by the political leadership of NATO,” Breedlove said.
The NATO Summit in Wales has ended and the President of Georgia is leaving on a high note. Giorgi Margvelashvili commended the UK Government for its "gracious hospitality and excellent organisation of the Summit" and thanked the Georgian delegation "for achieving success" at the international leaders' meeting.
Georgia’s efforts have been recognised by NATO leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Summit in Wales. NATO officials praised Georgia for its efforts to progress its nation and reconfirmed its intentions to one day invite Georgia into the Alliance.
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