President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly: One day Georgia will become a member of NATO

On 23 of April in Batumi, the NATO 97th Rose-Roth Seminar - “Georgia and Black Sea Region New Geo-Political Agenda” was opened. The seminar was attended by the authorities of the Georgian government and representatives of NATO.

One of the speakers was the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze, who spoke about the importance of Georgia’s Euro Atlantic integration. In his statement Kobakhidze underlined several important messages:

The foreign orientation of the country is documented in the Constitution - Even if the anti-Western government comes into power, it will be difficult to radically change the country's foreign policy: “The Constitutional Reform made last year strengthened our aspiration towards European integration, which is officially documented as the main priority of foreign policy.”

Public Opinion on Georgia's foreign Course- “Kobakhidze pointed out that most of the population supports the political parties with the pro-European course: I want to tell you that in the 2016 parliamentary elections most of the voters supported political parties with pro-European platforms. All the surveys show that this course has a decisive and growing support from the Georgian society”.

Euro-Atlantic integration as a guarantee for the region security: "We believe that the best way to ensure the security of the Black Sea region is to strengthen the Euro-Atlantic aspiration of regional countries."

Despite internal problems of EU and NATO, they must deepen corporation with candidate countries: Despite the internal problems of EU and NATO, they must deepen corporation with the candidate countries: “Despite internal difficulties, EU and NATO should not cancel the process of expanding. Active cooperation with EU and NATO is crucial to maintain independence and sovereignty of the non-member countries, and to assist them in strengthening their economy and defense capabilities,” said Irakli Kobakhidze.

Georgia is fulfilling its commitment - "I would like to emphasize that Georgia makes ambitious reforms to fulfill NATO membership criteria. The recent constitutional reform has created a comprehensive framework for long-term democratic and stable development.

Georgia's participation in international peacekeeping missions: “We participate in international missions and thus contributing to global peace and security.”

Ten years after the Bucharest agreement, Georgia is ready to join NATO: “We believe that Georgia is ready to join NATO. 10 years ago, NATO member states agreed in Bucharest that Georgia would definitely become a member of the Euro-Atlantic family.”

Russia, as a major threat to regional security: “Even now, when we are talking about future of regional security, Moscow is intensively expanding its military resources across the occupied territories.”

Violation of Human Rights on the Occupied Territories and creeping occupation: “Human rights in Georgia's occupied territories is quite difficult, and the creeping occupation of Georgia is a clear expression of Russia’s aggressive policy.”

International community should answer Russia: “The strong position of the international community is of crucial importance and it should be a clear message to Russia that her aggressive policy against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and other countries in the region, is totally unacceptable "

The importance of the black sea region:” Peace and stability in the Black Sea region will give us the opportunity to cooperative in the field of business, energy, innovations and technologies, culture and other areas.”

Paolo Ali, President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said in his speech that one day Georgia will become a member of NATO and that until then, it is necessary to deepen the cooperation.

This kind of seminars and workshops, which are dedicated to increasing public awareness about NATO, are very important to Georgia, as the Euro-Atlantic course is the only way to maintain the sovereignty and security of the country. Most of the population supports the Euro-Atlantic integration of the country, but according to surveys of National Democratic Institute (NDI), this indicator is gradually decreasing.

The reason for the survey results, on the one hand, is a result of aggressive Russian information warfare and on the other hand, it could be a result of the society’s frustration.