At the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Plenary Session the Deputy Head of the Slovenian Delegation Matej Tonin asked NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg the following question –  “When will we see Georgia as a full member of NATO”.

As Tonin noted, the Slovenian delegation supports NATO enlargement and would like to see Georgia as a full member of the Alliance.

“Speaking at the US Congress in March 2019, you said that NATO is not only the longest-lasting alliance in history, but this is the most successful one in history. The Slovenian delegation totally agrees with you. We are satisfied that Montenegro is already in and Northern Macedonia is almost in the Alliance. The Slovenian delegation supports NATO enlargement and would like to see Georgia as a part of NATO, this country is the great partner and contributor to our missions. Secretary General, when will we see Georgia as a full member of NATO? ” – Matej Tonin asked.

In response to the question, the NATO Secretary General noted that Georgia would become a NATO member, though the timeline of the process is not defined. According to Jens Stoltenberg, without full membership, NATO has a very strong partnership with Georgia.

“NATO’s door remains open. We proved it by allowing Montenegro to join. Montenegro became a 29th member of Alliance two years ago and soon Northern Macedonia will become the 30th member of Alliance. So for the past two years, we have proven that NATO’s door remains open. We have also clearly stated many times at different NATO summits that Georgia will become a NATO member, but we have no timeline for this process. We support Georgia’s efforts to modernize and strengthen its security and defense institutions to meet NATO standards. So this is an issue we are working on together with Georgia.

It is also important to remember that even without membership, we have seen more NATO in Georgia – we have a joint training and evaluation center in Georgia, we have more exercises, we have more NATO presence in Georgia than we ever have before. This is good for Georgia and good for NATO. So, without full membership, we have a very strong partnership with Georgia”, – Stoltenberg said.