Georgia: Nato made a mistake

2008-08-12 17:09

Brussels - Georgia's envoy to Nato said on Tuesday the Atlantic alliance had made a mistake by not giving his country a roadmap for membership at a summit this year, and Russia had taken that as "a green light" to attack.

"It is our clear position and this position is strengthened after the Russian violations, that it was a big mistake made by allies that Georgia and Ukraine did not get the Membership Action Plan in Bucharest," ambassador Revaz Beshidze said.

"We think Russia got this message as a green light, and, mostly, the recent steps we have in the territory of Georgia come from this mistake," Beshidze told a news conference after meeting ambassadors of the 27-nation military alliance.

Nato pledged at the Bucharest summit that Georgia will one day become a member of the alliance.

But it stopped short of offering the two aspirants a formal plan to prepare for accession because several western European allies, led by Germany, had misgivings about expanding the US-led military alliance to Russia's southern border.

- Reuters