Foreign ministers from NATO-member states will discuss Georgia and Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) on March 6, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

“This will be the first opportunity at ministerial level for an exchange of views on how the ministers see this and how they wish to respond,” Appathurai said at a news conference in Brussels on March 5.

Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze and Foreign Minister Davit Bakradze met with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in Brussels on March 5.

The NATO spokesman said that Georgia’s reforms and its NATO aspiration were discussed during the meeting.

“I think it is safe to say that in general the allies are positive on the efforts and results of Georgia’s reform,” he said. “The Secretary General did point out that further work is required in the areas such as judicial reform and [NATO] also look forward to the upcoming parliamentary elections and urged the Georgian officials to ensure that these elections are conducted in a free and fair manner with the minimum of technical complications.”

“And second, they discussed Georgia’s aspirations to join the Membership Action Plan. The Speaker [Nino Burjanadze] and the Minister [Bakradze] made clear Georgia’s position and the Secretary General committed to convey that message to the ambassadors and noted of course that Ministers of Foreign Affairs of NATO will be here sitting around the North Atlantic Council table where they will have a discussion of membership aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia,” the NATO spokesman said.

He said that both Georgia and Ukraine had indicated their “strong interest” in getting an invitation to join the NATO Membership Action Plan at the NATO summit in Bucharest this April.