Europe

Europe

Georgia becomes NATO aspirant state â€“ deputy PM

08 December 2011 18:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Georgia was named a NATO aspirant country for the first time on Thursday, the countryâ€™s deputy premier said, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

Georgia, which has been proactively seeking NATO membership since a coup in 2003, was included on the list during a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers that opened on Wednesday in Brussels

â€œGeorgia was for the first time mentioned among NATO aspirant nationsâ€¦ those countries who received a MAP (membership action plan) such as Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina,â€ said Deputy Prime Minister Georgi Baramidze, who is also minister for European integration.

The minister said the new status means that â€œGeorgia has the same membership instruments as these countries.â€

â€œNATO welcomes reforms in aspirant countries and supports their continuation,â€ Baramidze said.

Although Georgia is eager to join NATO, the five-day war in 2008 over Georgiaâ€™s breakaway territory of South Ossetia has made the alliance wary of taking up the issue. Russian troops are still present in South Ossetia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who attended a NATO-Russian council meeting in Brussels earlier on Thursday, has warned that Russiaâ€™s 2008 war with Georgia could be repeated if the South Caucasus state joined NATO.