Ex NATO Sec-Gen highlights West’s “mistake” in not providing Georgia, Ukraine with “clear path” to membership in 2008
Rasmussen reiterated he had been in favour of granting the MAP to Georgia and Ukraine during the summit but “we couldn’t achieve consensus within NATO.” Photo: GettyImages
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The West made its first “mistake” back in 2008 in not outlining a “clear path” to NATO for Georgia and Ukraine, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary-General of the Alliance, has said in an interview with the Foreign Policy magazine.
In the interview published on Monday, Rasmussen acknowledged NATO members could not agree on granting Georgia and Ukraine the Membership Action Plan at the 2008 Bucharest Summit, with the split sending a “wrong message” to Russia, which invaded Georgia a few months later in August of the year.
We made the first mistake back in 2008 in not outlining a clear path forward for Georgia and Ukraine. We also made a mistake in 2014 after the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea into the Russian Federation, where we introduced some sanctions. But they were mild sanctions. All that gave Putin the impression that he could, almost without any cost, continue and grab land by force,” the former NATO official noted.
Rasmussen reiterated he had been in favour of granting the MAP to Georgia and Ukraine during the summit but “we couldn’t achieve consensus within NATO.”
It was a mistake by NATO not to grant Ukraine and Georgia their Membership Action Plans (MAP) back in 2008, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary-General of the alliance, said in an interview with the Georgian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Monday.
Priorities and future prospects of the NATO-Georgia military cooperation were discussed on Wednesday in a meeting between Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, the Chief of the Georgian Defence Forces, and Admiral Rob Bauer, the Chair of the NATO Military Committee.
Nothing will change Georgia’s determination to pursue its path toward the European Union and NATO membership, President Salome Zourabichvili said on Thursday in an interview with the French magazine Marie Claire.
Former Secretary-General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen says that it is time to set out an action plan for Georgia and Ukraine to become NATO member countries.
Edgars Rinkevics, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, on Sunday said his country supported granting Georgia a Membership Action Plan for joining NATO.
Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Monday stressed that the Georgian authorities saw the guarantee of the country’s security under the NATO “umbrella”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday called the invitation for Georgian officials to meet with alliance leaders at its upcoming Madrid Summit an “important expression” of “solidarity” and “close partnership”.
Viktor Dolidze, the Head of the Georgian mission to NATO, on Wednesday said the country had been invited to take part in today’s meeting of the alliance’s Rammstein format for the first time, with the main topic of discussion being the issue of strengthening Ukraine's defence capabilities.
Georgian Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze on Wednesday participated in the meeting of Rammstein format of NATO in Brussels for the first time, discussing strategies and initiatives to assist Ukraine in combating the ongoing Russian offensives.