NATO Summit’s Declaration Omits Georgian Membership Path

The official document published Wednesday for the ongoing NATO summit in Washington makes no mention of a path to membership for Georgia, which has appeared in all official NATO summit declarations since 2008. 

Georgia’s omission in several key places appears deliberate. For instance, paragraph 31, which is about the Black Sea, makes no mention of Georgia, nor does paragraph 28, which discusses NATO partners like Bosnia and Moldova. Georgia is only mentioned once in the document, in paragraph 17, and there the mention merely asks for “Russia to withdraw all of its forces from the Republic of Moldova and Georgia,” a reference to the Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria and South Ossetia.

While potential Georgian and Ukrainian membership were formerly viewed as going hand-in-hand, this year’s omission of Georgian accession to NATO is sharply contrasted with language stating that Ukraine is “on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”

This omission of Georgian membership may reflect the changing politics and alignment of the Caucasian nation, which has recently sought to position itself between Russia and the West. In May, the Georgian Parliament overrode a presidential veto to pass a law, based on the U.S.’s FARA, aimed at limiting foreign influence. The passing of this “Foreign Agents Law” provoked significant backlash from the EU, which announced Tuesday that it had stopped Georgia’s planned accession to the EU.