GEORGIA: NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says no nation can veto Georgian NATO bid

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Thursday (October 4) no nation could veto Georgia's bid to join the U.S.-led military alliance and that the door remained open to the small ex-Soviet state. The United States has pushed for NATO membership for Georgia, which is at the centre of the Caucasus region and is home to a pipeline taking oil from Asia to Europe. But Russia, Georgia's big northern neighbour, strongly opposes the Western military bloc expanding on its borders. "NATO's door was open and is open, principle number one," said de Hoop Scheffer said at joint news briefing with President Mikhail Saakashvili in Signakhi, two hours drive east of Tbilisi. "Principle number two: the road to NATO is based on performance. Countries have to perform, countries have to reform, and to perform to reach the state of NATO membership. Important point number three is that no other nation, big or small, has a veto, or to say it in French 'un droit de regard' on the course Georgia and NATO together want to follow. That is a process which will be decided finally by the 26 NATO allies, and no nation, I repeat, big or small, will be able to influence that process," de Hoop Scheffer added. Scheffer appeared to be alluding not only to Russia but also to NATO member France whose defence minister, Herve Morin, told Reuters on Wednesday (October 3) that Paris would not support Georgia's NATO bid if it meant Russia felt threatened. De Hoop Scheffer described his visit as a sign of encouragement to Georgia but made clear that Tbilisi needed to successfully complete defence and judicial reforms and said NATO would be watching the country's electoral process carefully. Georgia has presidential and parliamentary votes next year. Relations between Russia and the small former ally on its southern fringes have sharply deteriorated since pro-Western Saakashvili won power in a peaceful 2003 revolution and vowed to win back two pro-Russian rebel regions. Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in wars after the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union. But de Hoop Scheffer ruled out any role for the NATO in resolving tensions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Saakashvili is facing his biggest domestic challenge yet after the fragmented opposition united this weekend and called for his resignation on corruption allegations. Saakashvili has called the allegations lies. Russian soldiers stand as peacekeepers between the rebel forces of South Ossetia -- only around a two-hour drive from Tbilisi -- and Abkhazia, on the Black Sea Coast. The Georgians accuse Moscow of providing moral and financial backing to the rebels, with whom they sporadically exchange rocket fire. This year a war plane flying from Russia dropped a missile that landed in a field near a Georgian village, though it did not explode. Helicopters have fired on houses. Moscow military deny involvement in these incidents.

ITN Source | October 5, 2007

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