Speaker: Georgia’s NATO “open door” policy fails to deliver real prospects

Georgia’s NATO “open door” policy has become an unattainable goal, serving merely to steer candidate countries without offering them real prospects, said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

Papuashvili noted that, in reality, NATO lacks a clear position on enlargement, Caliber.Az reports, citing Sputnik Georgia.

He described the ‘open door’ policy as a carrot dangling in front of a donkey — intended to motivate it forward, yet forever out of reach.

According to him, current events confirm a “bitter reality”: Ukraine is shedding blood today precisely because of its aspiration to join the alliance. The war began over the issue of accession, and Ukraine continues to fight for the right to become part of the alliance, he noted.

“The US says what aligns with its policy, and the problem lies with the hypocrites who keep repeating: ‘no consensus,’ ‘maybe tomorrow,’ ‘sometime in the future,’ ‘the door is open,’ and so on,” Papuashvili stated.

He also recalled former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze’s words, who once, upon hearing about NATO’s ‘open door,’ replied: “Don’t keep us in the open door for too long, because it’s easy to catch a cold in a draft.”

Institutional cooperation between Georgia and NATO began in 1994, when Georgia joined the “Partnership for Peace” program.

Since 2004, cooperation between Georgia and NATO has intensified. At the 2008 Bucharest Summit, it was announced that Georgia and Ukraine would inevitably become members of the alliance. In 2011, Georgia was granted the status of a “NATO aspirant country.”

According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US and other NATO members’ efforts to militarise Georgia raise particular concern in the region. Moreover, Moscow claims that this does not enhance Georgia’s security.

By Jeyhun Aghazada