Lt. Col Robert Hamilton on Georgia’s NATO Expectations

Few nations are expecting the NATO Warsaw summit with the same anticipation as Georgia, with its foreign vector ever pointing towards deeper integration into the North Atlantic Alliance. It can be easily surmised that Georgia will not be given a much-coveted membership action plan in Warsaw, but it is expected that Georgia will not be left entirely empty-handed, either. Robert Hamilton, Lt. Col., US Army talked through Georgia’s NATO expectations in a chat with Voice of America’s Georgian bureau at the Security and Defense Summit organized by the Georgian Ministry of Defense.

How would you characterize Georgia’s relations with NATO and when will it be fully prepared to join the Alliance?

My estimation is, and it was shared by a lot of guests and high-level speakers at the Summit, that Georgia is fully prepared for NATO membership, Georgia has done a lot politically and militarily to prepare for the Alliance- it is a very large contributor to NATO in Afghanistan, was involved in Kosovo, which was a NATO mission, and also contributed in Iraq, which was not a NATO mission but nevertheless a lot of NATO partners participated. During the first day of the Summit, a Noble Partner, which was a US-British-Georgia exercise, wrapped up. In that exercise, a Georgian Unit was certified as fully meeting NATO standards, and recognized as fully interoperable for all NATO missions.

What is the main value of this exercise for Georgia’s Armed Forces?

I think the real value and importance of this exercise was the certification that came at the end. The Georgian unit is now fully interoperable and fully qualified for other NATO operations in the future- fully meeting NATO standards in all areas. Georgia, as you know, has participated in a lot of NATO missions but in an exercise like this NATO was able to assess a unit against a specific set of criteria. Looking forward, Georgia-US and Georgia-NATO exercises will continue, but the goal is to certify more military units to NATO standards and qualify them fully for further operations.

What do you think the up-coming Warsaw Summit will bring to Georgia?

It’s hard to predict what will happen at the Summit and as you know, all members of the Alliance have to agree to bring in a new member. I know that the US policy on NATO has been that Georgia belongs in the Alliance as it has met all the necessary criteria. It is also official NATO policy- that Georgia and Ukraine will become members of NATO-Alliance, as said during the 2008 Bucharest Summit. It is now more of a political question and no longer an issue of military interoperability, no asking whether Georgia has done enough as far as its defense reforms, or building its military forces to meet NATO standards or whether Georgia meets the democratic form of government that NATO requires as a standard. It now becomes a political question of how NATO will follow through on its pledge that Georgia and Ukraine become members of the Alliance.

By Anna Kalandadze, Voice of America Georgian Service