By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Georgian and Ukrainian officials welcomed on Wednesday NATO’s decision to boost ties with the countries, despite the alliance’s refusal to admit them to the Membership Action Plan (MAP), seen as a vital step toward membership.
After a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance would “beef up” the NATO-Ukraine and NATO-Georgia Commissions, to help speed up reforms needed for the countries’ eventual membership of the alliance. However, European countries led by Germany blocked the countries’ entry to MAP.
Georgian State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Giorgi Baramidze told reporters in Tbilisi: “Georgia has managed to take a step forward toward joining the North Atlantic alliance. This is not MAP, but it is an important element of this plan, which brings us closer to the alliance and enables us to implement the essential and important process of reforms in all the spheres to comply with NATO standards.”
NATO’s refusal to admit the two post-Soviet states to MAP was welcomed by Russia, which strongly apposes the alliance’s expansion into Moscow’s former sphere of influence.
Ukraine also gave an optimistic reaction to NATO’s decision.
Addressing a foreign ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko said: “We consider the decision of the NATO Council as a step toward meeting the criteria for admission to the Membership Action Plan.”
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze insisted that Russia, whose concerns are widely seen as the reason for European countries’ refusal to admit Georgia and Ukraine to MAP, would not be able to block Georgia’s road toward NATO membership.
“Regardless of Russia’s open aggression, that country cannot stop Georgia from becoming an alliance member,” she said.
Half a dozen European countries, led by Germany, said on Tuesday that Georgia and Ukraine have failed to meet the criteria for MAP, citing their poor relations with neighboring Russia, and Georgia’s ongoing frozen conflicts with the disputed provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.