Georgian Prime Minister George Gaharia said his country deserves to become a full member of NATO. He wrote about this in his article “Georgia deserves membership in NATO,” published in The Washington Times, an American publication. The Georgian prime minister justifies the necessity of joining the alliance with the fact that Tbilisi makes a huge contribution to the “transatlantic alliance” and is vital for ensuring the “geopolitical security” of the Black Sea.

“It’s time for the alliance to respond to our request for membership. The NATO leadership has repeatedly promised Georgia full membership, and we hope that we will be able to overcome the obstacles to joining the organization, and in the near future. Increasing Georgia’s participation in NATO and building up NATO’s presence in Georgia will strengthen security in the Black Sea region and Western countries, as well as strengthen Georgian democracy and the country's growing economy, ”the Georgian Prime Minister wrote.

He also noted that the Black Sea serves as a buffer zone that helps protect Europe, NATO and the vital US interests from hostile powers. He identified Russia as the main threat.

According to Gakharia, for Russia this region is interesting in terms of geopolitics and access to other areas strategically important for it, such as Syria, North Africa and some parts of the Eastern Mediterranean.

  • NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gotemüller at a meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Georgy Gaharia in Batumi, 2019
  • © Seyran BAROYAN / AFP

Gahariya emphasizes that the three states with access to the Black Sea - Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey - are already part of NATO, and Georgia, without whose support the issue of "geopolitical security" in the region cannot be resolved, is so far only an associate member of the alliance. At the same time, he announced Russia's “occupation” of 20% of Georgian territory.

Recall that in August 2008, Georgia attacked South Ossetia. As a result of the conflict, South Ossetia and Abkhazia proclaimed their independence. However, Tbilisi still ranks republics in its territories.

At the same time, Gaharia writes that his country has made considerable efforts to strengthen security in the region and will continue to cooperate with the United States and other NATO members in the framework of joint military exercises.

According to experts, with these statements, the Georgian prime minister is trying to attract the attention of the leadership of the alliance and remind himself.

“We hear such statements from the Georgian side with a certain periodicity. They have already stated that they will soon be in the North Atlantic Alliance. They also talk about the importance of Georgia as a kind of outpost that supposedly protects Europe from "Russian aggression." And now Georgia reminded the whole world, NATO, the European Union, Washington that it exists and needs support, preferably financial, ”commented the head of the Political Science and Sociology Department of the Russian University of Economics named after Georgian Prime Minister in an interview with RT. G.V. Plekhanova Andrey Koshkin.

Washington's Geopolitical Interest

Tbilisi has been striving to become a member of the alliance for several years, and after the collapse of the USSR, it began to actively develop its cooperation with NATO.

In the 1990s, Georgia joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and joined the NATO Partnership for Peace program, whose mission was to build relations between the alliance and countries outside the organization.

After Mikheil Saakashvili came to power, NATO-Tbilisi cooperation moved to a new level. So, Georgia adopted an individual partnership plan with NATO, and the country began to participate in the military operations of the alliance in Afghanistan.

In 2015, the Joint NATO Training and Assessment Center - Georgia was opened in Georgia, where the Noble Partner exercises are held annually, and later it was decided to create a large NATO military logistics center on the basis of the Vaziani airfield.

In addition, Tbilisi is the only non-aligned participant in the large-scale military exercises of the Defender Europe 2020 alliance.

  • Georgian military at NATO exercises
  • © US Army

Nevertheless, the North Atlantic Alliance is in no hurry to accept Georgia into its membership. Thus, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly reported that although Tbilisi has made "significant progress" since 2008, the country still has a lot to do before joining the bloc. Moreover, he indicated that the timing of Georgia’s admission to the alliance has not yet been determined.

Analysts recall: to become a member of NATO, a country must not have territorial disputes.

“The very fact of the non-recognition of the two newest states - the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia - by Georgia and the stubborn reluctance to recognize the real state of things automatically makes it impossible for Georgia to participate in the North Atlantic Alliance. Obviously, in order to seriously talk about this, Georgia needs to resolve its territorial disputes and claims, ”said Alexey Martynov, director of the Institute of the Newest States, in an interview with RT.

Political scientists draw attention to the fact that Washington is quite satisfied with the position of Georgia as an associate member.

“Georgia is a country that you can rely on for political and military influence on Russia. There is Washington’s strategic, geopolitical interest, and, based on these considerations, it uses Georgia as an anti-Russian bridgehead, ”Andrei Koshkin said.

Experts also note that the active interaction of the alliance and Tbilisi affects bilateral relations between Georgia and Russia. So, earlier Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that Moscow was closely watching the cooperation of NATO and Georgia in the region.

“We are now seeing some actions in Georgian politics that are also having, though not a direct, but still definite, influence on our bilateral relations. In particular, we are observing the activity in this region shown by NATO and the USA. Georgia has recently updated an agreement with NATO, ”RIA Novosti quoted Karasin as saying.

Analysts say that the alliance’s active presence in the Black Sea region poses a threat to Russia's national security.

“The location of NATO near the Russian borders poses a potential threat to our country and is a scenario of containing Russia,” said Sergei Sudakov, corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences, in an interview with RT.

However, the expert stressed that Moscow is able to repel any possible aggression.

“Russia has modernized equipment, such as the Iskander-M and Pantsir complexes, as well as the Bastion coastal complex, which protects the sea borders of the Russian Federation. Therefore, no matter what Americans and NATO members say, Russia is reliably protected in case of possible military aggression, ”Sudakov explained.

On the anti-Russian wave

It is worth noting that Georgia is not the only country in the post-Soviet space that seeks to join the alliance. Ukraine has also for many years been talking about its intention to join NATO. The country's constitution fixed the course for joining the alliance.

Experts note that Georgia and Ukraine equally use anti-Russian rhetoric to increase their chances of joining the bloc.

“We are well aware that they have, frankly, equal chances. The technologies are the same too. On Russophobic politics, they want to "enter" into NATO. And therefore, to some extent, they support each other in an effort to enter the alliance on the anti-Russian wave, ”Andrei Koshkin explained.

In his opinion, the topic of NATO membership and anti-Russian slogans are also used by Tbilisi and Kiev in order to distract the population from domestic political and domestic economic problems.

“They plundered the people and in return can offer nothing more than a clearly expressed foreign policy orientation against the Russian Federation,” Koshkin emphasized.

The expert also recalled that Georgia’s economy and social infrastructure is currently not in the best condition, and the country's authorities are trying to find an additional source of funding in the person of NATO, using anti-Russian rhetoric.

Political scientists also draw attention to the fact that parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia in 2020, so now each party will try to declare its desire to join the North Atlantic Alliance as loudly as possible. In this context, the appearance of an article by the member of the Georgian Dream party, Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia, is understandable.

“The ruling Georgian Dream party has very strong competition with the Saakashvili team, which claims to be true supporters of rapprochement with the West. Therefore, the “Georgian Dream” had to be shown that they are strong supporters of the course of joining NATO, ”Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, concluded in an interview with RT.