There is “disappointment among many” that Membership Action Plan (MAP) will not be granted to Georgia at the NATO summit in Wales, but Georgia is “moving closer to NATO, maybe not through a giant step, but at a steady pace,” NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, said in a post on his Facebook page on June 25.

“I know the decisions taken by NATO Foreign Ministers here in Brussels have triggered a lot of discussion in Georgia. I think 2 points are important. First, at the Summit in Wales, we will put in place an unprecedented package, connecting Georgia to NATO more deeply and more substantially than it has ever been before – and, I believe, more than any other non-NATO country,” he wrote.
 
“Second, we still have to begin negotiations on the Summit Communique, which I am sure will reconfirm the Bucharest commitment that Georgia will be a NATO member, and clarify the progress Georgia is making on that path,” Appathurai continued. “I know there is disappointment among many that MAP will not be granted, but actually Georgia is moving closer to NATO, maybe not through a giant step, but at a steady pace. And that is the result of the hard work, and good diplomacy, of the Georgian government, present and past.”

NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said after meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on June 25 that NATO summit in Wales in September “will not be about membership action plan” for Georgia. He said that Alliance will develop “substantive package” to bring Georgia closer to NATO; he also added that specifics of the proposal have yet to be elaborated.