Russian FM Sergey Lavrov: Georgia is being dragged into NATO against its people's will

FM Lavrov: Russia won’t let Georgia join NATO

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Georgia is being ‘forced’ into NATO. He stated this at a press conference after meeting with the de facto foreign ministers of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions (South Ossetia).

“Our position on NATO expansion is clear: it will be a red line if the alliance continues to move closer and closer to the borders of the Russian Federation”, Lavrov said.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price also commented today on the matter today. Speaking on the issue of NATO, Price said that no country has the right to determine the borders of another state.

“The fundamental principle of international law is that no country, no matter how large and influential, no matter how powerful its military weapons, even if it has nuclear weapons, has the right to define another country’s borders, to harass and intimidate small states. This is not something that the United States, our partners, our allies will endure, be it in Europe, the Indo-Pacific or any other part of the world”, Ned Price said.

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At the 2008 Bucharest Summit, NATO supported the decision to allow Georgia and Ukraine to become members of NATO.

On December 9, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that NATO withdraw its decision to allow Georgia and Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

“It must be in the fundamental interest of European security to immediately withdraw the 2008 Bucharest Summit decision on Georgia and Ukraine becoming members of NATO, which contradicts the commitment of OSCE participating States not to increase their security at the expense of the security of others”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, the goal of NATO membership is reflected in the Constitution of Georgia. According to them, the decision made at the Bucharest Summit was repeated at all NATO summits held after 2008. A communiqué adopted at the NATO summit in Brussels in 2021 underscores that the Allies consider it unacceptable for any third party to interfere in the determination of the countries’s foreign priorities.