Less possibility for Georgia or Azerbaijan to join NATO, analyst

There is less possibility that Azerbaijan and Georgia will join NATO anytime soon, US analyst on Russia and South Caucasus and Director of Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Michigan Ronald Grigor Suny told Azerbaijani news agency APA.

"Since the Russian-Georgian war there is much less possibility of Georgia or Azerbaijan joining NATO. With Russia prepared to move across the Caucasus, and the South Caucasian states being relatively weaker than Russia, it is unlikely that NATO would have a meaningful presence in the region. If NATO was imaginative, it would expand in one particular way - make Russia a member! This way an alliance that was formed against the Soviet Union would turn into a collective security pact to deal with conflicts among its members," said he.

Asked what Russia and US could do in order to cooperate in the region of South Caucasus, Mr Suny said: "Both Russia and the US want to cooperate. South Caucasia is an area of considerable conflicting interests between these two powers. The United States has pulled back a bit from its fairly expansionist policy of global hegemony during the Bush administration, so the door has opened a bit for better relations with Russia. Together the US and Russia could show their good will and the advantages of cooperation by solving one of the regional conflicts, perhaps the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh. It is time for some creative thinking… and compromise from all sides."