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Ex-NATO Chief: Georgia Should Join Alliance Without Russian-Occupied
Territories

Ani Chkhikvadze

   TBILISI - This story originated in [1]VOA's Georgian Service.
   Former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Georgian
   officials should consider joining the U.S.-led European military
   alliance without protections for the country's Russian-occupied regions
   of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
   Speaking with VOA's Georgian Service in Tbilisi on Tuesday, Rasmussen,
   who stepped down as head of the 29-nation military bloc in 2014, said
   the post-Soviet Republic's stellar compliance with prerequisite
   membership criteria justifies a broader public dialogue on the matter.
   "Georgia fulfills almost all criteria to become a member of NATO," he
   said. "I think the way to move beyond that stalemate is to discuss in
   Georgia whether you will accept an arrangement where NATO's Article 5
   covers only that Georgian territory where the Georgian government has
   full sovereignty."
   Article 5 of the NATO Treaty says an attack on one member is considered
   an attack on all members, which is why Russia, which has maintained
   thousands of troops in the two secessionist regions Abkhazia and South
   Ossetia since fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi in 2008, strongly
   opposes the NATO ambitions of Georgia in particular.
   "In other words, by excluding Abkhazia and South Ossetia from NATO's
   Article 5--if you decide that you're willing to accept that--you can go
   to NATO and say, 'Ok, NATO will not be involved in those border
   disputes, so we are ready to move. Will NATO move?'" he said. "I think
   that's a way to get some progress."

References

   1. http://www.amerikiskhma.com/

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