Nominee for US State-Sec Blinken: if Georgia meets NATO criteria, NATO door should remain open for the country
Antony Blinken served as Deputy Secretary of State between 2015 and 2017 under President Barack Obama. Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images.
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US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for the post of State Secretary Antony Blinken has stated that if Georgia meets the criteria for NATO membership then the alliance should keep its door open for the country, Voice of America has cited Blinken as saying during the recent meeting of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Blinken said that Russia is aggressive to countries which are not members of NATO and lack the security umbrella.
There is sufficient evidence for this,” Blinken said.
Blinken was nominated for the post on November 23.
He served as the US Deputy National Security Advisor between 2013 and 2015 and Deputy Secretary of State between 2015 and 2017 under President Barack Obama.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet with Georgian President Salome Zurabishvil in Brussels on January 22, the NATO press office has reported. Previously Stoltenberg and Zurabishvili met in January 2019. Stoltenberg met with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia also at NATO headquarters back in September 2020.
Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier today at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where Black Sea security, air traffic radar data sharing, upcoming elections in Georgia and the challenges and progress of the country on the path to NATO membership were discussed.
Georgia is fully ready to be a NATO member state, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told local media on Saturday as his government marked 12 years since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Co-chair of the Friends of Georgia Group in the United States Congress and a Republican Party member, said it is "time for Georgia to be fully a member of NATO" in his address as part of the Peace and Security in Europe online conference on Friday.
US State Secretary Antony J. Blinken has raised ‘Russian military aggression’ in Ukraine and Georgia during his recent phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the College of Europe in Bruges earlier today that ‘NATO’s door remains open’ for Georgia and Ukraine. Stoltenberg said that he was at the NATO summit in Bucharest back in 2008 when the alliance made a decision that Georgia and Ukraine will become its members but they ‘did not set any fixed date’.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani held a phone conversation with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the security situation in Georgia and the region. David Zalkaliani has stressed during the conversation that Georgia remains committed to its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
United States Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker has stated in Tbilisi that Georgia remains the US’s top strategic partnership in the South Caucasus and a crucial partner in the Black Sea region. He said that his recent visit to Georgia aimed to ensure the further development of Georgia as a safe and a democratic country ‘for which the implementation of the April 19 EU-mediated agreement is important.’
Head of NATO Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer has stated that the committee's fourth visit to Georgia ‘points at a unique partnership between NATO and Georgia which is becoming stronger year by year.’ Bauer arrived in Georgia late yesterday and has already met with Georgian Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze. Burchuladze stated that NATO-Georgia relations are ‘unprecedented’ and that the alliance’s ‘continued political and practical support’ for Georgia confirms this.