Georgia's possible entry into NATO will seriously change the regional geostrategic situation, General Secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha said on Friday.
"Georgia's entry to NATO, though it is premature to speak of any specific dates, will force states in the region and the CSTO as a whole to make certain amendments to their principles for defending collective and national security interests," Bordyuzha was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Some 77 percent of the Georgian population voted for joining NATO in a recent referendum, the Georgian Central Elections Commission said in its official report on Friday.
"If Georgia joins NATO, the CSTO will be forced to react to such serious changes in the regional geostrategic situation," Bordyuzha said.
"Georgia's membership in NATO means that the military infrastructure of the alliance will advance closer to the CSTO borders and that there will be higher military activity directly outside the external borders of the organization's zone of responsibility," he said.
"This will in itself inevitably provoke stronger instability and unpredictability that will jeopardize the CSTO's zone of responsibility," Bordyuzha said.
The 7-member CSTO was renamed in October 2002 on the basis of the Collective Security Treaty (CST) which was signed in May, 1992in the framework of Commonwealth of Independent States. The current members include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan.
Georgia joined the group in 1994 but withdrew in 1999.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article