Reiteration by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen that Georgia would join the alliance, encourages Georgia’s “revanchist aspirations”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on September 10.

The statement was a reaction to Rasmussen’s remarks when he visited Tbilisi on September 10, telling Georgia: “The future is in your hands. But know this: you have a friend in NATO - and a future home in NATO.”

While noting that such statements “contain no new elements” and represent reiteration of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit decision that Georgia will join the alliance, the Russian Foreign Ministry also said that such remarks were showing that NATO kept on “sending ‘encouraging’ signals to Tbilisi”, indicating that the alliance “failed to learn the lessons of the tragic events of 2008 in South Caucasus.”

It said that promoting the issue of Georgia’s NATO membership “does not strengthen anyone’s security,”

“It encourages revanchist aspirations of the Georgian leadership, fueling its reluctance to recognize political realities in the region and increases tensions in the South Caucasus,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.