Germany insisted on Monday it was “not the right time” to allow Ukraine and Georgia to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), the Financial Times reported on April 1.

Although previously Germany has signaled its concern on the matter, the Financial Times writes, this is the first time Berlin has explicitly ruled out backing the two countries at the Bucharest summit this week.

“Germany opposes Georgia’s MAP application both because of problems surrounding the country’s two disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and because of the repression of opposition movements,” the Financial Times writes.

It also quoted German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman as saying that Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” regarding NATO’s possible eastward enlargement must also be considered by the alliance.