According to the statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization took the decision at the Bucharest summit in 2008, and since then it has reiterated it in all meetings.

“NATO membership is a sovereign decision of Georgia and is based on the unwavering will of the majority of the Georgian population,” said the diplomatic service of the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday on the dialogue with the United States and other Western countries in which it reiterated its request to jointly create long-term legal security guarantees with NATO countries.

Moscow expressed its consideration that it is of fundamental interest for European security to officially overrule the decision made at the NATO summit in Bucharest that Ukraine and Georgia become members of the Alliance.

Russia considered that such a measure contradicts the commitment by the leadership of all member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which states that States should not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others.

For Russia, the eastward expansion of NATO forces and the presence in Ukraine of NATO’s weapons systems constitute a danger to the country’s security, to which it will respond appropriately.

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