On 10 April, former senior British military officer and former Leader of the British Conservatives in the European Parliament Geoffrey van Orden wrote an article for the Belgian newspaper “New Europe”. He stated that Georgia’s process for joining the NATO is well underway, reported agenda.ge.  

“If this sounds fanciful – a small country, 20% of which has been illegally occupied by Russia since 2008, joining the largest Western military alliance – the process is in fact well underway. The NATO-Georgia Commission, meeting in Batumi in October 2019, agreed to refresh the so-called Substantial NATO-Georgia Package, which has already been in existence for five years,” he wrote.

He added that at a time when NATO’s cohesion is under threat, and most European allies spend far too little on defence, Georgia is regarded as one of NATO’s closest operational partners. “Georgia contributes troops to the NATO missions in Afghanistan at a higher level proportionately than any other country. The pro-Western government in Tbilisi is determined to fulfil the decision made by NATO at its 2008 Bucharest Summit, that Georgia will become a member of the Alliance. This is a goal shared both by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and by the population at large, where support for NATO membership runs at around 80%,” he wrote.

Orden also wrote that the Georgian government has recently acceded to NATO’s cybersecurity platform, becoming only the second non-NATO country after Finland to join the platform. “The timing is no coincidence. Tbilisi has been on the frontline of not only territorial aggression but of cyber and disinformation attacks from Russia. The Georgian government has worked hand-in-hand with both the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US’ intelligence services and has exposed efforts by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency to cripple parts of the Georgian government’s online ecosystem,” he added.

Orden also said that Georgia was among the ‘first of the countries to back post-Brexit Britain and seek a close future partnership (Caucasus Watch reported).

On 2 April, NATO Foreign Ministers decided to deepen their partnerships with Georgia and Ukraine. The three main aspects of the enhanced cooperation include exercises with the Georgian and Ukrainian forces; strengthening NATO’s presence in the region; and support for Georgia’s and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (Caucasus Watch reported).