If NATO refuses to grant membership action plan to Georgia now, it will happen later, it is not “a principle” issue, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on January 16.

Comments are in contrast to those of parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili, who said on January 13 in Tallinn that failure to grant MAP to Georgia at NATO summit in Wales in early September will "ruin and undermine" political stability in the country and may also pose a threat to country’s EU integration.

Asked about these remarks of Usupashvili, PM Garibashvili said at a news conference on January 16: “I do not share that assessment.”

Garibashvili also said that he had not seen those remarks of Usupashvili and suggested that they might be misinterpreted. “I will meet and speak about it with Usupashvili,” he said. 

“As far as the issue of MAP is concerned, several years ago the previous authorities created unheard of high expectation in the public and then we were left… disappointed. We are not going to do the same; we are working and we will show our results by our deeds. So, I want to say unequivocally that our foreign vector remains unchanged,” Garibashvili said.

“If there is no MAP now, it will be later – it is not a principle [issue]. If the question is whether we want it or not, of course, we want it. But if there is no MAP, it will not pose a threat to and change our European integration,” the PM said.

At the news conference Garibashvili also said that after his visits at Davos World Economic Forum and then to Israel and Munich Security Conference in late January and early February, he will travel to Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.