There has been an intensification of Georgian diplomatic efforts with NATO member states to convince them to extend Membership Action Plan to Georgia at a summit in Bucharest on April 2-4, Batu Kutelia, the Georgian deputy defense minister, said on March 12.    

“Most member states support Georgia’s invitation to MAP,” he told Mze TV. “We are working actively together with them to persuade the so-called skeptics [within NATO] to change their position. The remaining three weeks [ahead of the NATO summit] will be decisive, but, in my opinion, the final decision will not be made until the last day.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on March 10 that states with conflicts could not join the alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has reiterated in an interview with the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza that NATO had yet to decide about inviting Georgia and Ukraine to join MAP.

Referring to Russia’s warning against Georgia and Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, the NATO Secretary General said as quoted by Reuters: “Remarks on this from the Moscow side have happened often. We treat our Russian partners seriously ... We must engage them in the discussion.”

Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to NATO, warned on March 11 that “the real secession” of Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia would begin as soon as NATO indicates Georgia could join the alliance.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s new ambassador to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, said on March 12 his top priority would be to convince Russia that Georgia’s NATO aspiration was not a threat to Russian interests.

“My task will be to assure the Russian side that there are lawful, sovereign interests of [Georgia] in European integration and at the same time, that there is a great desire of our people to have close, good-neighbor relations with Russia,” Kitsmarishvili said at a press conference in Tbilisi.