No NATO MAP soon, Deputy Foreign Minister says
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, October 13
According to the Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Dundua, Georgia will not receive MAP [Membership Action Plan] from NATO, neither during the December nor the June summits.
"Unfortunately, Ukraine has overshadowed the subject of Georgia. When the focus is on the region of the former Soviet Union, the attention is solely on Ukraine.
“Most probably we won’t get any important step on the road to integration, an important step being Membership Action Plan (MAP). However, in December, in Montenegro we will receive the prospect of accession and I do not know what Georgia will receive at the July NATO summit. We know one thing - that MAP is not to be expected," stated Dondua.
According to Dondua, the government does not want to create unnecessary expectations before the elections.
“We should not create expectations that cannot be fulfilled. Our next step in becoming a NATO member is receiving MAP, but we do not expect it to happen soon. While will continue striving towards our goal, unreal expectations will only damage our European politics,” state Dondua.
“We have already received the European Union’s Association Agreement and also serve as message to NATO that our European politics work well. We demand the same from NATO - if we cannot receive MAP at the moment, they should give us something, just like the EU gave us Association Agreement. It would help us to keep the faith of society,” stated Dondua.
The former US Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker also shared Dundua’s position. According to him, if he were in Georgia’s position, he would try to prepare for the summit as much as possible as Georgia needs to be ready in case of any NATO or EU expansion.
