Parliament Speaker: Countries with Western ambitions face increasing risks

The speaker of Parliament has expressed his desire for EU and NATO to "fasten the integration process” for countries like Georgia who are ready to unite with the international organisations.

Even though Georgia’s Parliament has adopted a resolution in response to the Ukraine crisis, Georgia's Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili said Parliament had addressed NATO and EU to fasten the country’s integration process, in response to a journalist’s questions about an article published in the Russian Kommersant magazine.

In the article, an unidentified source at NATO’s headquarters said if Crimea became part of Russia, it was possible Georgia could obtain a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at an official NATO meeting in September.

The news, allegedly also confirmed by an anonymous source at the Department of the United States, was published on the Kommersant website yesterday, March 12.

"Georgian Parliament is committed to the path expressed in the resolution. This is not just solidarity towards Ukrainian people but also an address, a call and a request towards US and EU to take all needed measures in order to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine and to solve the conflict peacefully. Ukrainian people [need] to be assisted and Georgia’s reoccupation [needs] to be reached,” Usupashvili said.

In the resolution, he said Parliament had clearly indicated that NATO and EU should "fasten the process of integration of those countries which are ready for this".

In his view this was important, because the risks were increasing for those countries which were ready to gain closer ties with the two organisations.

Usupashvili said members of Georgia’s Parliament and he, as Parliament’s speaker, would remain committed to the principles expressed in the resolution on Ukraine, which was adopted by Parliament.