No timeframe for Georgia's accession to NATO: alliance chief

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Tuesday that there is no timeframe for Georgia's accession to the Euro-Atlantic alliance.

"About the timeframes, that is difficult to say," the NATO chief told reporters after a meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at the NATO headquarters.

Accession to NATO is a performance-based process and it is all up to the Georgians, he added.

"I am not going to go into any detail about timeframes, or years or months whatsoever."

De Hoop Scheffer encouraged Georgia to continue reforms and make full use of the current mechanisms with NATO -- the Individual Partnership Action Program and the Intensified Dialogue.

He said Georgia has made "great strides" in reforms but that there are points of concern. "The general picture is a positive one."

But citing the name of a Beetles song, he said Georgia's road to NATO membership is "long and winding."

Saakashvili appeared to be more optimistic. "Georgia is no track for (NATO) accession," he told reporters. "Nobody should derail us and we should not derail ourselves from that track."

But he admitted that his country has to do its homework and continue reforms.

He promised to be a security provider rather than a security consumer, pledging to send "a limited number of Georgian contingent to Afghanistan" to help NATO. Georgia is currently involved in Kosovo and Iraq.

Source: Xinhua