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Showing entries for Category: Georgia
The times they are a changin'
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U.S. officials had hoped a NATO ministerial meeting set for December might be the occasion for the alliance to extend a so-called Membership Action Plan, or MAP, to the two former Soviet republics. However, the odds against any quick move toward NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine got a lot longer after the Russian invasion of Georgia in August.
Ms. Merkel, however, told journalists after a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg, Russia, that the meeting would be only "an initial evaluation on the road to MAP."
Membership in NATO can come as long as a decade after the start of MAP. Ms. Merkel argued earlier this year the move would provoke Russia unnecessarily and that a country such as Georgia that had two open territorial disputes wasn't a suitable NATO member. NATO membership includes a mutual defense clause. (Link)
The Bush Administration has been busy dangling the NATO carrot in front of Georgia and Ukraine for some time now. Many analysts believe Georgia's recent actions in South Ossetia, prompting the skirmish with Russian forces, was intitated believing NATO forces would intervene on Georgia's behalf.
Mutual defense is a key component to the NATO agreements. Given the Russian's uncomfortableness with satellite nations cozying up to the West, NATO membership ought to be thoroughly and carefully considered before initiating the Membership Action Plan for any of the ex Soviet states (with their poorly defined, and disputed, borders).
Try to imagine the U.S. simultaneously fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Georgia. Thank goodness Chancellor Merkel didn't succumb to U.S. pressure and, instead, put the brakes on NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine
Topics: Merkel , Georgia , NATO , Ukraine
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