The message from the Vilnius Summit was very clear. The door is wide open for Georgia and Ukraine, remarked US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan on Thursday.

She said that “the thing that hasn’t changed is that the Allies want Georgia to become a member of NATO”.

“The steps that Georgia has to take to walk through that door have been clear for some time.

It is in Georgia’s hands to do the reforms that are required. They’re essentially the same reforms that are required for EU membership. It’s reforming the judiciary. It’s improving Georgia’s democratic institutions so that Georgia has both the military capability and the political democratic stability and institutions to sit at the NATO table. That has not changed, and everyone, all allies, the United States, in particular, is supporting Georgia in trying to make those reforms.

We just need to see political will on the part of the Georgian government to do the reforms that are necessary. But the clear message from Vilnius is that the door is open for Georgia, and the Allies want Georgia to be a member. That hadn’t changed at all.

I think Foreign Minister Darchiashvili did a very good job representing Georgia. This summit was not focused on that issue. Obviously, Russia’s war in Ukraine was the centrepiece of the Summit. And what we saw there was once again renewed unity by the allies, a recommitment to supporting Ukraine, to supporting Georgia, and Moldova, to supporting sovereign nation’s right to choose their own alliances, their own memberships.

This is fundamental, and this is, basically, what Russia is trying to take away from countries like Georgia and Ukraine. The allies made it very clear that that is unacceptable.

All nations, all sovereign nations, should be able to protect their territorial integrity and should be able to choose their own security alliances. Georgia has chosen to become a member of NATO, and NATO welcomes Georgia as a member as soon as Georgia does the reforms that it needs to do,” Kelly Degnan declared.