“NATO does not recognize the so called presidential elections nor the so called referendum held in the South Ossetia region of Georgia this Sunday,” NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in her statement on April 10.

“Unilateral steps to change the name or status of the region are detrimental to the efforts to find a lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia,” she added.

Lungescu added that the Alliance does not recognize the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of Georgia as independent states and that it reiterates its full support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its international borders.