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| Europe |
| Saakashvili: Georgia Will Join NATO, EU |
| 2005-09-15 |
| NEW YORK (AP) - The former Soviet republic of Georgia will be invited to join NATO by 2008 and shortly after will become a member of the European Union, the president of the Caucasus country said Wednesday. Mikhail Saakashvili, elected president in November 2003 after massive demonstrations against a rigged election, told a Columbia University audience it was inevitable such protests would spread further in the former Soviet Union. He said rulers who try to use force to hold back democracy "are on the way out." Saakashvili, whose country of 5 million people has 860 troops serving in the U.S-coalition-led forces in Iraq, said his nation will enter both the North Atlantic defensive alliance and the European Union. "By 2008, it is absolutely realistic to count that we might at least get officially invited to NATO and I might even say become a member," he said. "Of course, it takes time, it takes a change of perception within the organization." "NATO (membership), I think is decisive, and is basically very realistic, and as regards the European Union, in the longer run, every country that is European by its history and culture, European by its aspirations, by its self identity, by its goals will inevitable be part of every major larger European institution. This is irreversible." |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Not a good idea, they elected Carter as governor, and Hartsfield International is a real pain in the ... oh, THAT Georgia ... never mind. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-09-15 22:34 |