Davit Bakradze, the Georgian foreign minister, has warned that NATO’s failure next week to invite Georgia to its Membership Action Plan (MAP) would encourage Russia, and consequently fuel the separatist conflicts in Georgia.

“A no in Bucharest will have very, very threatening and negative implications for conflict resolution,” Reuters quoted Bakradze as saying at a news conference in Brussels on March 26. “It will be very clearly seen that this policy of creating problems works...and then we will have zero chances to resolve those conflicts peacefully and it will encourage those in Moscow who think it is better to maintain those conflicts.”

Bakradze, along with Giorgi Baramidze, the state minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, are visiting NATO Headquarters to discuss Georgia’s reforms with the North Atlantic Council under the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).

The visit comes just a week before a NATO summit in Bucharest, which is expected to decide on whether to invite Georgia and Ukraine to join the Alliance’s Membership Action Plan (MAP).

The Washington Post wrote on March 24 that there were some considerations even within the U.S. administration that Georgia and Ukraine be given “some kind of temporizing assurance by NATO but not membership plan.” President Saakashvili, however, told the paper: “It's rubbish… We can't fool ourselves. We can't fool our own people.”

“If we don't get it [MAP] now, the window of opportunity could be closing, for a number of reasons,” the Washington Post quoted Saakashvili as saying. “By refusing us, [NATO] will be sending a signal to Russia of, 'Go and get them. We are not going to mind too much.' Russia will be emboldened. They will conclude that they are on the right track when they stir up trouble with us.”