Georgia 'Will Join NATO': Merkel

[tekisui]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday assured Georgia would join NATO as she strongly backed the ex-Soviet republic's President Mikheil Saakashvili in his conflict with Russia.

"Georgia will become a member of NATO if it wants to -- and it does want to," she told reporters before talks with Saakashvili in Tbilisi.

It was one of the strongest statements yet of support for Georgia's NATO membership bid, which is fiercely opposed by Russia.

"We are on a clear road towards NATO membership (for Georgia)," she added at a later news conference.

On August 12, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung had said the conflict in the Caucusus had changed nothing with regard to Georgia's chances of joining the NATO military alliance.

At the last NATO summit in Bucharest in April, leaders agreed that Georgia and Ukraine should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization eventually, but neither nation was given candidate status and no timetables were set.

more at link: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Georgia_will_join_NATO_Merkel_08172008.html

[Smith_3]

1. Merkel has her head up Bushes ass.

And she always has.

[pampango]

2. The aftermath of the fighting will be interesting. If Saakashvili is ousted and succeeded by

a more pro-Russian administration or if the US/NATO decide that the idea of Georgia joining NATO is too now too risky, then Putin and Medvedev will probably be happy with the outcome of the Georgian conflict.

If Saakashvili hangs in there for the foreseeable future and Georgia does still join NATO, Russia will not have gained much other than to weaken Georgia's hold on South Ossetia which, while important to Georgia I'm sure, won't matter a great deal to most of the rest of the world.

Apparently Russia's military action, justified or not, seems to have scared Poland and Ukraine enough to allow those defensive US missile systems into their countries. While this was in the works before the shooting started, it seems to have been rushed to agreement as a diplomatic response to events.