Georgia hopes for NATO entry action plan in 2007

ARE, Sweden, May 24 (Reuters) – Georgia hopes to start the road to
NATO entry in 2007 and does not expect its unresolved conflicts or two
remaining Russian bases to get in the way, European integration
minister Georgy Baramidze said on Tuesday.

Since his election last year President Mikhail Saakashvili has made
closer ties with Western institutions a priority.

Visiting the ex-Soviet state earlier this month U.S. President George
W. Bush said Washington encouraged Georgia’s closer co-operation with
NATO, although alliance officials have said in the past it still has
to resolve political problems.

“We hope that at the next NATO summit, which will probably take place
at the start of 2007, that we will be given a membership action plan
invitation,” Baramidze said at a meeting of NATO countries and partner
states in northern Sweden.

NATO hopefuls Croatia, Macedonia and Albania have all been given such
action plans. Georgia is already a NATO partner and has held military
exercises with the alliance.

Baramidze said neither the two Russian bases, located near the border
with NATO-member Turkey, nor unresolved conflicts in the breakaway
Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, would halt Tbilisi’s plans.

“It is a mistake to think that someone could block Georgia’s NATO
entry using that,” Baramidze said.

Georgia is in the middle of painful talks with Moscow over a timetable
for closing the Russian bases and withdrawing troops.

A new round of talks started in Tbilisi on Monday, with Georgia
demanding a pullout by the end of 2008.

Russia said last week it might move armoured vehicles from Georgia to
nearby Armenia, prompting an angry reaction from neighbouring
Azerbaijan.

“We understand Azerbaijan’s concerns, it is very clear why they are
concerned, but we cannot influence this process,” Baramidze said.

05/24/05 17:58 ET