Turkish FM calls for Georgian NATO membership in Davos: ‘Georgia needs us’
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says that NATO needs enlargement and Georgia to become a member. Photo: Mevlut Cavusoglu’s Twitter page.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has called for Georgia’s accession into NATO during the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, stating that ‘Georgia needs us and we need an ally like Georgia. So we need enlargement,’ Reuters reports.
We are criticized for having relatively better relations with Russia as a neighbor, but our western friends do not agree to invite Georgia because they don’t want to provoke Russia. But Georgia needs us and we need an ally like Georgia. So we need enlargement and Georgia should be made a member,” Reuters has cited Cavusoglu as saying.
Cavusoglu stated during the panel discussion that “I don’t understand why we have not invited Georgia or why we haven’t activated the action plan for Georgia to become a member.”
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani has responded the statements made by Cavusoglu.
Dear Mevlüt @MevlutCavusoglu thank you for your encouraging support to Georgia in its relentless pursuit to become a member of NATO. The importance of your support is even more pronounced given the challenges currently facing ????????. We hold firmly to our chosen path to NATO #WEF20
— David Zalkaliani (@DZalkaliani) January 23, 2020
Turkish media reports that Cavusoglu has also given an interview with German paper Bild, where he said that European states, like Germany and France, refrain from making the decision towards Georgia’s NATO membership because of the Russian factor.
A Georgian delegation headed by PM Giorgi Gakharia is attending the forum.
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Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has met with Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is visiting Tbilisi to participate in the eighth, trilateral meeting of Georgian, Azerbaijani and Turkish FMs, earlier today. “We value our special relations with Turkey and welcome further strengthening of strategic partnership,” Gakharia has stated at the meeting.
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