GEORGIA’S GEOPOLITICAL LANDMARKS: IS THERE A SHIFT?

Revaz GACHECHILADZE

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Revaz Gachechiladze, Professor at Tbilisi State University, Doctor of Geography (Tbilisi, Georgia)

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Introduction

On 30 October, 2004, we all learned that the NATO Council endorsed the Individual Partnership Action Plan between NATO and Georgia. The diplomatic communities of many countries assessed this as a serious step toward Georgia’s integration into NATO. No specific dates were cited; the NATO Secretary-General who visited Tbilisi several days after the announcement cautioned our leaders that they had to cope single-handedly with the gravest of our problems—separatism. The public, however, is inclined to believe Mikhail Saakashvili, who says that Georgia will join NATO during his presidential term.

The country has already started readjusting its armed forces to the NATO standards. Under the agreements with the United States, by the end of 2004 there were 850 Georgian servicemen stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition forces (this is a large figure for a country with an army of 14,000-15,000). In so doing, Georgia is demonstrating its intention to shift its foreign policy vector westward; for over two centuries, until the end of the 20th century, the country (wittingly or unwittingly) was north-oriented.

It should be said, however, that starting in the mid-1990s, the country’s leaders have been insisting on a multi-vectoral foreign policy, which means that the country has abandoned its orientation only toward Moscow. Diplomatic efforts in this direction never slackened, yet (for objective and subjective reasons) the country’s real integration into Europe (by this I mean integration into NATO and…………….

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