NATO: Georgia aspires to join the alliance

Georgia is one of four countries that aspire to join NATO, the organisation’s 2013 annual report reveals.

Today, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen released the Annual Report 2013, which looked at what NATO achieved last year and set out the challenges for the year ahead and stated that Georgia was one of four countries that aspire to join NATO.

"In 2013 good progress was made in implementing the reforms necessary to meet the Alliance's standards, even if further progress is required for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to achieve their membership aspirations,”|/Rasmussen said.

The report read that close relationships were maintained with Georgia and three other partner countries that aspired to NATO membership.

In this regard, the annual report issues recommendations which highlighted where specific areas of work needed to be done.

Georgia needed to focus on continuing progress toward civilian and military reform goals, as set out in the Annual National Program, the report unveiled.

The report also devoted one of its sections on partners of NATO. Rasmussen believed partner countries can participate more effectively in allied assessments, planning, and decision-making on current and potential operations.

"As part of these efforts, NATO is fostering partner participation in the NATO Response Force (NRF) - NATO's rapid-reaction force. In 2013, Sweden joined the NRF alongside Finland and Ukraine, while Georgia pledged to make forces available to the NRF in 2015,” Rasmussen said.

He believed that education was another area where co-operation had expanded in 2013 and through its training programs NATO was helping to support institutional changes in partner countries including Georgia.

"Initially, these programs focused on increasing inter-operability between NATO and partner forces. They have expanded to provide a means for Allies and partners to collaborate on how to build, develop and reform educational institutions in the security, defence and military domains,” the report reads.

Moreover, last year NATO developed individual country programs with Georgia and eleven other countries.

Investing in the right capabilities, maintaining connected forces and deepening and widening co-operation with partners are key to shape a NATO, which is able to meet future challenges, the Secretary General said at the launch of his Annual Report.

Rasmussen believed NATO was now more effective and efficient than at any time in its history, but said that its allies would need to "maintain the momentum of transformation” at the Wales Summit.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen talks to members of the Press after his press conference on the occasion of the release of his Annual Report for 2013.

NATO-Georgia Relations

Georgia is an aspirant for NATO membership, actively contributes to NATO-led operations and cooperates with the Allies and other partner countries in many other areas.

At the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, Allied Heads of State and Government agreed that Georgia will become a member of NATO. This decision was subsequently reconfirmed at successive NATO summits in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

The NATO-Georgia Commission (NGC) provides the framework for cooperation between NATO and Georgia.

Georgia is currently the largest non-NATO troop contributor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Georgia has offered to contribute to the NATO Response Force (NRF) and is expected to join the NRF for its 2015 rotation.

Georgia also cooperates with NATO and other partner countries in a wide range of areas through the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC).

One priority in the area of defence and security-sector reform has been to support demilitarization projects in Georgia through the NATO/PfP Trust Fund mechanism. This mechanism allows individual Allies and partner countries to provide financial support to key projects in partner countries on a voluntary basis.