Guram Macharashvili: Mark Rutte knows very well that Georgia has been ready for NATO membership for years. Now he says, ‘If they have the desire, let them apply,’ when they themselves told us, ‘You are very well prepared!’ We will dig up those videos and show them
Mark Rutte knows perfectly well – and not only him, but everyone in NATO – that Georgia has been ready for NATO membership for years, according to their own institutions’ assessments. Now he’s talking as if we just need to “express the desire and start the process,” when they previously told us, “You are extremely well prepared!” In that case, we will pull out those videos and show them, said Guram Macharashvili, MP from the People’s Power party, while commenting on NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s statement.
According to him, no other country – not even NATO members – participated in NATO peacekeeping missions on the scale and with the quality that Georgia did.
“When the Secretary General doesn’t have a clear answer, they usually give these very general and, one might say, insulting responses. He knows very well that, apart from Georgian soldiers fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops, no one else has shown such bravery or contributed such a high percentage in international peacekeeping missions. That is NATO’s own direct acknowledgment. A non-member country – Georgia – participated in NATO forces and peacekeeping missions on such a scale and with such quality that no other country could match it, including NATO member states.
Now he says things like ‘if you have the desire, apply, etc.’ – when they themselves told us, ‘You are very well prepared!’ In that case, we will dig up those videos and show them, where they themselves say that Georgia is ready [for NATO membership], and that only a political decision needs to be made,” Macharashvili said.
For reference: Mark Rutte stated that he is not naive about the ongoing processes in Georgia.
When asked whether Georgia still remains an aspirant country, Mark Rutte replied that “any country in the Euro-Atlantic area that wants NATO membership can express that desire, and then the process begins.”
“Of course, I am not naive about what is happening in Georgia. We are very concerned. We have clearly communicated this to the Georgians,” Mark Rutte said.
