NATO Members to Decide what Country will Be Accessed to Alliance - Estonian FM

• Thursday, September 13, 12:46

Tbilisi. Georgia  to choose its future itself and only NATO and its members must decide what country will become the Alliance's member, Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Paet stated on Wednesday, September 12, during the visit to Georgia, while commenting a statement of official representative of the Foreign Ministry of Russia Alexander Lukashevich.

"The talks about Georgia's membership in NATO will not strengthen security and will encourage revanchist aspirations of the Georgian government and will increase tensions in the South Caucasus", the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich has said today, Georgian Journal cites him as saying. 

"The push for Georgia's eventual membership in NATO doesn't strengthen security, it encourages revanchist aspirations of the Georgian government, fueling its unwillingness to recognize existing political realities in the region and increases the tensions in the South Caucasus", Lukashevich stated, commenting on the statement of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during his recent visit to Georgia on September 6 that "the future home of Georgia is in NATO".

Lukashevich noted that "such statements indicate that NATO has not learned a lesson from the tragic events of 2008 in the South Caucasus, and continues to send Tbilisi "encouraging signals".

"Regretfully, there is nothing new in this statement (Lukashevich's). We must understand very well that Georgia should decide itself what its future must be and with what organization and country it wants to have close relations. NATO and its members should decide how the alliance will develop and what country will become NATO member", Paet noted at the joint press-conference with Foreign Minister of Georgia Grigol Vashadze.

According to him, "no one other country should resolve this issue, it must be a sovereign decision of NATO and Georgia".

Foreign Minister of Estonia arrived in Georgia on the official visit on September 12. Paet's meetings with Georgian authorities' representatives have been planned in the framework of the visit.