Democratic conduct of the October 1 parliamentary elections will help Georgia to get closer to NATO membership, President Saakashvili said on October 12.

In a video address, recorded after he spoke on phone with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Saakashvili said that he had been invited to address NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Prague in November.

“After these elections and because of how these elections were conducted, we all have a historic chance to seriously move forward in terms of NATO integration,” he said.

“The NATO ministerial meeting will be held in December, where it will be possible to make new decisions. Now as never before – and I told it to the prime ministerial candidate [Bidzina Ivanishvili] – we need to work together, including with the election winner coalition [Georgian Dream], in order to move forward in terms of NATO integration,” Saakashvili said added that in remaining one year of his presidential term he would spare no efforts to get Georgia closer to NATO membership.

“We really have such an opportunity,” Saakashvili said and stressed that chances for boosting Georgia’s NATO integration increased “against the background of these elections, under condition when everyone recognized these elections as an example of democracy, under conditions when we preserved a democratic framework in Georgia, although we still have much work to do in this regard.”

He also said that after the elections he hoped the Georgian Dream coalition would no longer have “illusions” that Georgia had “problems with Russia” because of “personality of any political leader of Georgia.”

“The problem is fundamental for someone and that is Georgia’s independence,” Saakashvili said. “Therefore, strengthening of the Euro-Atlantic course is as essential as never before in order to strengthen Georgia’s independence. This course has no alternative for the future of our country regardless of who will be in the government and who will be sitting in this [presidential] palace.”

“Therefore, now we should no longer drag out specifying final election results; we should no longer drag out the process of establishment of the new government,” Saakashvili said.

After meeting with President Saakashvili, leader of Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili said that foreign policy was an issue on which “we have concurring” point of views and added that “Georgia will definitely manage to become a NATO member state in the near future.”

In his video address, Saakashvili also said that Georgia’s budgetary resources were now at record high level.

“A lot of good things can be done even if you do not create anything and use only existing resources,” Saakashvili said, adding that Georgia’s state coffers “are filled as never before”.

“Therefore, now this budget should be transferred [to incoming government] and used for the purpose of the Georgian people and the development. The foreign political course directed towards Euro-Atlantic [integration] should be continued,” he said.

“We will contribute to it as much as possible because we all are Georgians. Our task is to develop Georgia. Politicians should also understand – election campaign is over. Now they should assume responsibility, put aside campaign rhetoric, aggression and other remarks and work for what the people have voted for – further progress of Georgia and progress of each Georgian family,” Saakashvili said.