U.S. invites Georgia to enter NATO

The U.S. Congress had a repeat discussion of the 2006 NATO Freedom Consolidation Act on Wednesday. The bill was drafted by 14 Senators including Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Democrat Joseph Biden as well as influential Republicans Richard Lugar and John McCain.

The paper mentions Georgia as well as Albania, Croatia and Macedonia as candidates to join the NATO in the nearest future. $19.8 million is to be allocated from U.S. federal coffers to the countries, $10 million of which will go to Georgia.

"Tbilisi is a young democratic government, resisting pressure from breakaway republics backed by Moscow and Russian troops on Georgian soil," Richard Lugar said, urging his colleagues to vote for the Act.

The bill was first submitted to the Congress last fall, in the heat of the Russian-Georgian standoff as a demonstration of the American support of Tbilisi. The upper chamber passed the bill in November but the House of Representatives did have the time to vote for it last year. The bill now has to go for yet another vote in the two chambers.

Senator Lugar called Georgia a strategically important point as the bulk of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline runs through the country. The oil main, which was opened last summer, is the first and largest non-Russian pipeline in former Soviet republics. The United States finds it critically important to protect its $4-billion investment. And the NATO presence in the region could give the security guarantees. Kommersant