Ivanishvili doesn’t regard Georgia’s accession to NATO threat to Russia

NATO Meeting file photo

(Interfax – TBILISI, June 26, 2013) Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said that Georgia’s accession to NATO is a choice of the Georgian people and it does not matter whether Russia likes it or not.

At a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Ivanishvili answered the question about how Georgia intends to improve relations with Russia and simultaneously aspire for NATO membership considering that Russia holds a negative attitude to the enlargement of the alliance.

He said Tbilisi is aware of Russia’s attitude to the issue but “the main thing is not what Russia likes but what the Georgian people likes.” “This is the choice of the Georgian people,” he side adding that he finds it possible to explain to Russia that its fears about Georgian NATO membership damaging its security are groundless.

Ivanishvili said that the issue of relations between Georgia and Russia was raised at the meeting with the NATO Secretary General and satisfaction expressed with the beginning of the restoration of trade, economic and humanitarian relations. However, the Georgian side also expressed concern about Russia’s actions on the border with South Ossetia.

“Russia’s moves related to the shifting of the so-called border in Tskhinvali region in the context of positive steps are incomprehensible and don’t give it any benefits,” he said.

Comment