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Georgia’s Entry to NATO Is Irreversible, Saakashvili Said
Georgia’s entry to NATO is irreversible, as NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer specified the dates for the first time, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told the reporters Monday.
It was for the first time that NATO Secretary-General gave the dates of Georgia’s admission, Saakashvili said viewing it as another undisputable step towards NATO and emphasizing that Georgia has been dreaming of joining such alliance for ages.
NATO will further expand in 2009, covering Georgia and Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer made clear during the Munich conference on security.
Though the NATO expansion was the obvious highlight in Munich, it was hardly favored by all participants of the conference. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, for instance, called it “a provocative factor” that has nothing to do with upgrading the alliance.
“The process of expansion has nothing to do with upgrading the alliance or with ensuring security in Europe. To the contrary, it is a serious provocative factor that brings down the level of mutual trust… We have a fair right to wonder in honest. Whom is this expansion against?” Putin said.
”That the military structure of NATO is being brought closer to borders of Russia wouldn’t be passed off by the country’s authorities,” Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov vowed afterwards. “What NATO is we all have heard today. It is a military organization. But 10 to 15 years ago, we were promised that the military infrastructure of NATO wouldn’t near our borders,” Ivanov explained.
www.kommersant.com
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