The upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon will not see any change in the alliance's stance on Georgian membership, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Moscow on Wednesday.
Georgia has long been pursuing NATO membership, but its hopes of receiving a Membership Action Plan - an essential step on the path to membership - at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008 were dashed due to pressure from Germany and France. Instead, the alliance merely stated that the country would join at an unspecified date in the future.
"Georgia can expect that we will reconfirm what we decided in 2008 at the Bucharest summit. As you will recall, we decided in 2008 that Georgia will become a member of NATO provided of course that Georgia fulfills the necessary criteria to become a member of NATO. So we will reconfirm the decision we took in Bucharest," Rasmussen said in response to a Georgian journalists' question.
He said Georgia was one of the main areas of dispute between NATO and Russia.
"NATO insists on full respect for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We pursue a clear non-recognition policy when it comes to Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Rasmussen said, adding that regardless of differences over Georgia the two sides would develop "practical cooperation" on areas where there is agreement.
"It's essential that the well-known disagreements and disputes between NATO and Russia don't overshadow the fact that there are other areas where we share interests because we are faced with the same security challenges," Rasmussen said.
MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti)
