Ruling party head: NATO Summit “has not changed status quo” on Georgia, Ukraine membership

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the decision of the 2008 NATO Summit that Georgia and Ukraine would “definitely” become members of the bloc “remained in force”, and noted it was “understandable” that this year’s ongoing Summit had hot yielded “specific” outcomes.

Kobakhidze was commenting on the Communiqué adopted at this week’s Summit, which reiterated the decision made at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that “Georgia will become a member of the Alliance”.

Just as nobody knew yesterday exactly when and how Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members, the situation is the same after yesterday's Communiqué - that is, the status quo was maintained”, the party official said.

“In essence, the decision of the Bucharest Summit remains in force - that both countries will definitely become members of NATO - but beyond that, no specifics were said yesterday, which is understandable”, he told the local media.

The ruling party head also stressed the final document of the Summit had “clearly” stated that “NATO does not want a confrontation with Russia, and the expression of this attitude is that we do not have any news” on membership prospects of the two countries.