Ruling party head vows to apply “as much effort as possible” for progress towards NATO

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the country’s authorities would apply “as much effort as possible” to continue its progress towards NATO.

In his comments over the ongoing NATO Summit in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius, Kobakhidze noted the “special attention” to Ukraine at the Summit was “understandable” with the country being in a state of war and warranting a “different approach” from the bloc.

“We will apply as much effort as possible to continue the country's progress towards NATO. Much will depend on global processes. We should calmly wait for the development of events in the region on a global scale. This is our main task”, Kobakhidze said.

As for Ukraine, Ukraine is in a state of war, and therefore a special attention to Ukraine is understandable. We should not be envious. [But] [o]ne thing should be remembered in this context - in 2008, when we had a war [with Russia], you remember that we were not even given the membership action plan. This was the situation at that time”, the ruling party head continued.

Kobakhidze also noted a statement by the United States President Joe Biden - who on Monday claimed the country needed reforms to join the bloc - and added Georgia was “much ahead” of Ukraine and other aspirant countries in its own reforms, leading to “no basis for speculation”.