You're reading: Rasmussen: Russia cannot decide whether Georgia can join NATO

Russia is not entitled to decide whether Georgia will be a NATO member in the future, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview with Interfax.

 “This is for each individual nation to decide herself whether that nation
wants to belong to an alliance or not,” Rasmussen said.

“It’s not for Russia to decide whether Georgia or certain states in the
future can join our alliance. It is for NATO to decide and for Georgia to
decide,” he said.

“As you know, in Bucharest we decided that Georgia will become a member,
provided of course that Georgia fulfills the necessary criteria. That’s not the
case yet,” Rasmussen said.

“We have established the NATO-Georgian commission, and within that commission
we work with Georgia to advance reforms in Georgia, so that eventually Georgia
can fulfill the necessary criteria,” he said.

Asked whether Georgia can become a NATO member even without Abkhazia and
South Ossetia and whether Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and
its military presence in these republics could be an obstacle to Georgia’s
accession to NATO, Rasmussen said, “All this is quite hypothetical. Of course we
hope that a peaceful solution can be found to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia
issue.”

“We strongly regret that Russia has recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as
independent states. That’s actually not in accordance with international law,”
he said.

“In a direct response to your question, obviously it would not be acceptable
to de facto provide Russia with the right to veto a NATO enlargement,” he
said.

“I know that Moscow is not delighted or pleased with the NATO open-door
policy and NATO enlargement. But let me draw your attention to the fact that
enlargements of NATO and the European Union have contributed to creating a sum
of stability and economic progress in Eastern Europe. For centuries it’s been a
strategic goal of Russia to seek stability along her Western borders,” Rasmussen
said.

Russian Permanent Envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko earlier warned the alliance
that making Georgia its member was fraught with serious consequences for
Russia-NATO relations and European security.

“As for Georgia, I am convinced that NATO realizes possible serious
consequences of any steps to further involve Georgia in the alliance for
Russia-NATO relations and European security. They can’t fail to understand
that,” Grushko said.

“It would be absolutely unrealistic for NATO to expect that the policy of
Georgia’s convergence with the alliance could somehow influence our relations
with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and our obligations to defend them in any way,”
Grushko said.