"We are aiming for NATO [membership] not as a rebuke to anyone. This meets our values," Mikheil Saakashvili told Vremya Novostei newspaper in an interview. "Georgia will feel calmer, and democracy will be better defended."
He said accession would be complete during his presidency, and said this meant his first term in office, which expires in 2009.
As for relations with Russia, Saakashvili said: "In dialogue with Russia we represent neither Washington, nor Brussels, nor Paris, nor London."
"We represent ourselves," he said. "We have no other boss apart from our own people, and no other interests apart from good-neighborly relations."
Relations between the countries deteriorated after Saakashvili came to power in the South Caucasus republic in 2003 in a popular uprising known as the "rose revolution," which some politicians in Russia suspected was funded by the United States. Relations have been tense since then, and the two sides have traded accusations on a number of issues.
"I will do everything so that Moscow understands Georgia is not an enemy of Russia's, but a friend and strategic ally. We want good relations," he said.
