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The former deputy secretary general of NATO said that Georgia’s close cooperation with NATO and the United States is in its national security interest. The Georgian government’s propaganda rhetoric has a devastating impact on these relations.
Rose Goetmöller, who served as deputy secretary general of the alliance from 2016 to 2019 and visited Georgia several times as U.S. deputy secretary of state before that, told VOA that he is very sad about the current situation and said that “this is not the Georgia-NATO partnership he dreamed of.”
I am following very closely the recent events. I know that the US Department of Defense recently canceled very important military exercises that were to be held in Georgia this summer. The reason for this is that the Georgian government expressed the most bizarre, I would say, suspicions that NATO, the West, was somehow trying to overthrow the Georgian government and use Georgia as a springboard to open a second front in the war. To be honest, I find it all ridiculous. I think it was these unfounded accusations that made the Department of Defense decide that it was necessary to suspend these exercises. This distancing from Georgia occurred not only in the context of NATO, but also in the context of the European Union. This is something that is very, very regrettable for me.
My last official visit to Georgia as NATO Deputy Secretary General was in October 2019. I came to Batumi with the entire North Atlantic Council and all NATO permanent representatives. It was a great visit. We saw the close partnership between NATO and the Georgian Coast Guard and all the work that NATO does to protect the Georgian coast. So I am very sorry about the current situation because this is not the partnership between Georgia and NATO that I knew before.
I hope we can restore such a close partnership between NATO and Georgia.
“There is no doubt that the promise of the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia will become a NATO member should remain on the table. That is my hope, but what is the reality? I think the reality really depends on the Georgian people. I know that the attitude of the Georgian government and its propaganda line are destructive to these relations. But I think that the Georgian people should decide what their future reality is – whether a healthy, pragmatic and close relationship between NATO and Georgia will continue,” said Rose Gotmiole.
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