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Talks about Georgia NATO membership encourage revanchism: diplomat

“Such statements show that NATO has failed to learn a lesson from the tragic events in the South Caucasus” the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized

MOSCOW, September 10 (Itar-Tass) — NATO’s promoting the issue of Georgia’s possible membership in the Alliance encourage revanchist aspirations of the Georgian leadership, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.

“Promoting Georgia as a possible NATO member country does not strengthen security of anyone, it encourages revanchist aspirations of the Georgian leadership stirring up its unwillingness to recognize the political realities that have established in the region, and increases tensions in the South Caucasus,” the top Russian diplomat said.

“Clear legal guarantees of non-use of force by Georgia against its neighbors discussed within the framework of Geneva discussions must become a real contribution to the strengthening of security in the region,” Lukashevich stressed.

NATO has failed to learn a lesson from the tragic events of 2008 in the South Caucasus, Lukashevich said commenting on a statement by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen that NATO Georgia’s future home, made during his visit to Tbilisi on September 6

According to the diplomat, this statement “contains no new elements as compared with the decision reached at NATO’s summit in Bucharest (in 2008) and once again confirmed at the summit of the Alliance in Chicago (in 2012), which stated that ‘Georgia will become a NATO member country’”.

“Such statements show that NATO has failed to learn a lesson from the tragic events in the South Caucasus and continues sending ‘encouraging signals’ to Tbilisi,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized.