Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 23 / Trend E. Tariverdiyeva /
Ukraine and Georgia have little chances to enter NATO and this is a matter of long-term prospects, Russia's permanent representative at NATO, Dmitriy Rogozin, said.
"Their chances for membership at NATO are equal to the probability of falling comet to the Earth," Rogozin told Trend over the telephone.
On Sept. 23, in New York NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and after he confirmed that Georgia and Ukraine might join the alliance if they meet all necessary criteria, Novosti-Georgia agency reported.
This was the first meeting between Saakashvili and Rasmussen (Denmark's former prime minister) in his new position. Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze, Secretary of the National Security Council Ekaterina Tkeshelashvili, the Presidential Adviser on foreign policy issues David Sikharulidze and Georgia's Permanent Representative at NATO Grigol Mgaloblishvili also attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Rasmussen named it "constructive." In an interview with journalists, Rasmussen confirmed that "NATO's position on cooperation with Georgia remains unchanged.
"The decision of the Bucharest Summit also remains in power and it means Georgia and Ukraine will become members of the alliance, if they meet all necessary criteria," Rasmussen said.
According to Rogozin, a very streamlined diplomatic language used by the new NATO Secretary General clarifies only that the alliance refused the forced admission of these two states in its structure because of the weight of reasons.
"Alliance cannot admit unstable regimes, thereby destabilizing itself from inside. They have not yet digested the Eastern Europe and if they ate a couple more post-Soviet states, they will have the full indigestion," Rogozin said.
This is a frivolous issue on the NATO agenda, Rogozin added.
"Ritually, they will long announce that no one has cancelled the decision of the Bucharest Summit in 2008, but this is a prospective which our grandchildren even may not survive," Rogozin said.
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