Georgia Lobbies NATO For Closer Links
BRUSSELS, April 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgia's ministers for defense, foreign affairs, and Euro-Atlantic integration visited NATO headquarters in Brussels today to ask for an "intensified dialogue" with the alliance, as Ukraine and NATO did last year.
Such a dialogue would amount to a first, tentative acknowledgement of Georgia's membership prospects.
Georgia follows an Individual Partnership Action Plan, which guides reforms but does not commit NATO to offering membership.
A NATO official told RFE/RL today that most allies, led by the United States, support closer cooperation with Georgia.
The NATO official says there is no timetable for Georgia's progress, but said a NATO summit in Riga in November could be a milestone in Tbilisi's quest for a full Membership Action Plan (MAP). A MAP outlines concrete measures needed to prepare an applicant country for NATO membership.