How will Saakashvili pay for Georgia’s accession to NATO? January 31, 2012 - 12:16 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly confirmed Georgia’s possible accession to NATO, thus making Georgian President’s desire to join the Alliance more feasible. Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili, in turn, thanked his American counterpart for support and intention to develop both economic and defense cooperation. How can this be explained? Prior to Saakashvili’s visit to the U.S., many experts noted the talks to focus on Georgia’s participation in possible military operation against Iran, expressing confidence for the Georgian President to provide the country’s territory is case of escalation of conflict with Tehran. The experts seem to have proved right. Saakashvili’s consent to provide Georgia’s territory in face of war with Iran in exchange for U.S. support looks true to fact. However, it is noteworthy than conflict settlement is a key demand for accession to the NATO at the time when Georgia still has unresolved conflict with Russia. Others are confident that Georgia is unable to extend military assistance to the U.S. is the latter launches offensive against Iran. Certainly, America stands ready to bomb Iran’s north from the South Caucasus territory; while, Armenia and Azerbaijan are unlikely to give their consent due to Russia’s influence in the region. Hence, Saakashvili paid quite a small price for his aspirations: “though we support you, we can hardly help.” Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |