Protection from Russia : Ukraine, Georgia seek NATO membership

Ukrainian and Georgian officials on Wednesday strongly encouraged NATO members to bring the two countries into the alliance as a way to protect them from Russia and improve ties with the West.

Speaking ahead of a decisive NATO summit in Warsaw next month, Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Ukrainian Parliament, Hanna Hopko, said that NATO membership would bring security guarantees to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.

"I ask you to think carefully about the real strategy (of) how to protect Ukrainian society from Russian aggression," Hopko said, according to AP.

Putting forward his country's case, Georgian Defense Minister Tina Khidasheli charged that the United States would benefit from Georgia joining NATO as a way of deterring Russia.

"You need Georgia even more than we need membership in NATO today," Khidasheli said at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. "Why? Because Georgia is an opportunity for you to prove to (the) Russians that they do not have veto power, that they do not guide your policies, they do not make decisions instead of you."

The pleas came a day after US, British and Polish soldiers parachuted to the ground in Poland in a mass  show of force as NATO launched its biggest war games in eastern Europe since the Cold War...
  [i24news.tv]
9/6/16
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