Andrei Sannikov: No third countries could influence NATO decision on admission of Ukraine and Georgia

The NATO countries haven’t taken the decision to include Ukraine and Georgia in the Membership Action Plan (MAP). Receiving such a status is considered is generally believed the first step towards joining the world's biggest military bloc.

A conference was held in the framework of the NATO summit. It was dedicated to issues of the NATO enlargement and security issues. An international coordinator of the Charter’97, one of the leaders of the campaign “European Belarus” takes part in the conference. He has commented the situation around the issue of including Ukraine and Georgia in the MAP.

“The official decision hasn’t been taken yet, but one should stress that there is a consensus on this issue among all the NATO member countries. Formal invitation is not expected during this summit. However in general the results could be viewed as positive, as long as the NATO will take a decision that in the near future Ukraine and Georgia are to be granted a possibility to join the MAP after conforming some criterions,” Sannikov said.

He has also noted that “the fact that Ukraine and Georgia’s joining the NATO was discussed at the summit is very important as such. It means that these countries are already in the context of the NATO policy and future plans on the NATO growth”.

However, the most important thing according to the Charter’97 coordinator is the fact that “most of the countries have a very positive attitude to Ukraine and Georgia’s accession, and the most important thing which was underscored during the discussion of the issue, is that no third countries would be able to influence the decision on these countries’ joining the bloc,” Andrei Sannikov stressed.