Georgia's conflict with Russia cannot be allowed to damage Tbilisi's hopes of one day joining NATO, the US envoy to the military alliance said Monday.
"That Russia invades Georgia shouldn't affect our thinking," Ambassador Kurt Volker said in a speech at the German Marshall Fund think-tank in Brussels.
"What we have to look at is: is Georgia committed to developing a modern, democratic, prosperous economy, does it want to integrate into Euro-Atlantic institutions and can we help it to develop on that track," he said.
NATO leaders vowed in April that Georgia, along with Ukraine, would one day be allowed to enter the world's biggest military alliance, and that Russia must not be allowed to veto their hopes.
The 26 leaders tasked their foreign ministers to assess the progress of both toward a Membership Action Plan (MAP) — the penultimate step to joining — in December.
But Russia's military actions in Georgia in early August, launched amid a dispute over the rebel region of South Ossetia, has severely weakened the Georgian army, and with it some of Tbilisi's NATO credentials.
Georgia's candidacy was already flawed by concerns about democratic standards and its inability to resolve the "frozen conflicts" in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"We should be helping Georgia to reform," Volker said. "MAP is the best tool that NATO has developed for reform."
"Decisions about membership come later," he said, adding that NATO had not been discussing Georgia's hopes, as it was currently focused on getting Russia to comply with the six-point peace agreement that halted the conflict.
The United States has staunchly supported Georgia's NATO aspirations, even though some European nations are concerned that opening the door to Tbilisi would weaken, rather than boost, regional stability.
