NATO Reassures Georgia on 'Open-Door Policy'

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (pictured) told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on March 25 in Brussels that the promise of eventual membership for Georgia in NATO made in April 2008 still stands.

"NATO's policy toward Georgia has not changed. We will continue to support Georgia in its Euro-Atlantic aspirations," Rasmussen said, reports RFE/RL.

Along with Ukraine, Georgia has aspired to NATO membership for years. Rasmussen said the brakes that new Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych appears to have applied to his country's NATO aspirations will not affect Georgia's progress.

He said both countries can join as soon as they meet the relevant conditions — which include approval by all of NATO's allies — assuming they still want to.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO leaders decided not to put Georgia on a direct path to accession and did not grant it a Membership Action Plan. They did, however, adopt a declaration saying that Georgia and Ukraine were guaranteed eventual membership.