Polish pres voices support for NATO bid |
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Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:34
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TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - The Polish president voiced his country's support Monday for Georgia's bid to join NATO, and suggested the ex-Soviet republic could achieve its goal of receiving an invitation to join the alliance in 2008.President Lech Kaczynski, making his first official trip to Georgia, gave no further information about his prediction that an invitation could be forthcoming.'Georgia can become a candidate to join the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2008,' Kaczynski said.Ex-Soviet Georgia has been engaged in a dialogue with NATO and is taking steps to meet political and economic criteria for joining the alliance.Poland, which joined NATO in 1999, is one of the alliance's newest members. Together with other new Eastern European members of the organization, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Poland has supported both Georgia and Ukraine in their efforts to join the alliance, despite objections from a resurgent Russia.The Polish president also called Monday for closer relations between Georgia and Poland, specifically in the trade, aviation and military sectors. He invited Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili to take part in an energy forum in Poland in May.'We constantly feel that Poland supports Georgia's bid to integrate with NATO,' Saakashvili said at a joint news conference.Since coming to power in 2003, Saakashvili has vowed to get the small Caucasus nation both NATO and European Union membership -- plans that have irritated Russia, which has regarded Georgia as being within its sphere of influence.Further complicating Georgia's efforts to join NATO is its struggle to bring two breakaway provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, back under central government control. Russia has close ties with the separatist provinces, but does not formally recognize them.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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