Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 3
By Kamila Aliyeva – Trend:
It is doubtful to suppose that Georgia will get into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the near future, Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague, told Trend.
He says many European members of NATO have serious doubts on this issue.
“These doubts are not about Georgia's progress in reforming to meet NATO requirements, but about whether it is practical to extend the Alliance's security guarantees to a small country far away from Europe, of which Russia already virtually occupies a fifth,” Galeotti said.
US Vice President Mike Pence reassured his country’s strong support for Georgia’s ambition to join NATO at a meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi on August 1.
In April 2008, at the summit of NATO member countries in Bucharest, it was confirmed that Georgia may become a NATO member in the future if it meets NATO standards.