Georgian leaders not upset by NATO omission of possible accession

Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Chikovani has played down the fact that Georgian accession to NATO was not explicitly mentioned in the NATO summit declaration as has been the case in previous years.

Even if Georgia was not mentioned as a candidate member in the declaration on Wednesday, NATO had made clear that membership is open to states in the South Caucasus, Chikovani said in Tbilisi. He is convinced that Georgia could eventually join the alliance.

NATO did explicitly call for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Chikovani said.

Still, political analysts see the omission as an indication of NATO disapproval of an increasingly anti-Western course charted by the government in Tbilisi.

The former Soviet republic has been a NATO accession candidate since the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest and was accorded official EU accession status at the end of last year.

A law passed earlier this year to regulate foreign influence on Georgian civil society provoked a negative response from EU leaders and weeks of mass street protests in the country.

The EU summit in June effectively placed Georgian accession on ice. Resources intended for reforms to the military were blocked, and the United States cancelled a planned joint military exercise.

The Georgian opposition has accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of seeking to isolate the country.

"The only way to put Georgia back on the path to Euro-Atlantic integration is to win the election in a unified way," Tina Bokuchava, the head of the United National Movement said. The country holds parliamentary elections on October 26.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described the cancellation of aid for military reform as unfortunate. Georgian expectations for a fresh start in relations had been disappointed, he said.