Georgia pledges to forge ahead with Nato ambitions

Georgia’s prime minister has vowed to press ahead with a quest to join Nato, a mission that has long been a bone of contention between Russia and the western military alliance whose own future has been called into question by US president Donald Trump.

Mamuka Bakhtadze, who took over last month as leader of the strategically located Black Sea country, said Georgian membership of Nato could even benefit its neighbour Russia, even though Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned recently that he would view such a development as “extremely negative”.

The Georgian leader insisted Tbilisi’s drive to become a member of the military alliance, and eventually the EU, was compatible with the political balance of a “very sensitive” region. Next month marks 10 years since the Russia-Georgia war, when Moscow occupied about a fifth of Georgia’s territory.

“It is in the best interests of Georgia, it is in the best interests of Europe, and I would say it is in the best interests of the region, and Russia as well,” Mr Bakhtadze said of his country’s goals. “These aspirations will bring more prosperity to the region, more predictability, and more security as well”.

He said he came away encouraged from meetings last week in Brussels with Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general, and Donald Tusk, European Council president.

Nato leaders this month reaffirmed their 2008 decision for Georgia to join, reflecting the alliance’s increasing preoccupation with the Black Sea, where it says it has seen a sharp uptick in Russian naval activity.

But Mr Putin hit back with a warning delivered after his Helsinki summit with US president Donald Trump. The Russian leader said Georgian Nato membership would be a “direct and immediate threat for our national security . . . moving this Nato infrastructure towards our borders would be a threat, and . . . the reaction would be extremely negative”.

Moscow has long viewed Nato’s eastern expansion as a direct threat to its security and a means of stoking geopolitical tensions. It insists the alliance has repeatedly violated agreements on the limit of its sphere of influence.

“Georgia has turned into an element of the western strategy of deterring Russia,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said last week. Georgian politicians should promote the country’s national interest and not work to “service someone else’s geopolitical interests”, she added. “Their motives have nothing to do with caring for Georgia.”

Pressed on whether Georgia risked making problems for itself by pursuing Nato membership, Mr Bakhtadze said his country had shown it was not a “troublemaker”. It needed security for ambitious economic plans to use its Black Sea access to become an economic hub for countries around it.

“All our steps are very predictable, very rational, very-results oriented and focused — and of course very democratic,” he said. 

Mr Bakhtadze insisted that joining Nato remained attractive, despite Mr Trump’s attacks on the alliance and on its newest member Montenegro, which also has tense relations with Russia.

In an interview last week, Mr Trump appeared to question the pact’s commitment to collective defence, saying it was legitimate to ask why the US would step in to protect a country such as Montenegro that had “very aggressive people” and could help trigger “World War III”.

Authorities in Podgorica have clashed with Moscow, accusing it of backing a failed 2016 coup instigated to thwart Montenegro’s accession to Nato last year. Russia has dismissed the allegation.

Mr Trump also used a summit this month to launch strong attacks on allies for failing to spend more on their militaries.