The Georgian Parliament passed a declaration supporting Georgia’s aspirations for NATO membership with 160 votes to 0 on March 13.

The declaration is a parliamentary act backing a pro-NATO memorandum signed by the leading Georgian political groups on March 12.

MP Gocha Jojua from the new political party National Forum, which has questioned the reasonability of Georgia’s NATO integration, said he would not participate in the vote.

Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said that Georgia’s NATO integration is not directed against any other state.

“Georgia’s NATO integration means not only stability for Georgia, but also stability for the entire region. It means further democratic progress, it means the strengthening of democratic values in Georgia,” Burjanadze said.

She also said that the March 12 shelling of upper Kodori Gorge was a provocation aimed at derailing Georgia from its course of development and NATO integration.

But she added that the Georgian leadership had ordered Interior Ministry police in the gorge not “to use force in response to the attacks” in order not to yield to any provocations.