Photo:
RIA Novosti
The NATO representative on South Caucasus William Lahue has ruled out the possibility of war with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia after Georgia’s accession to the Alliance. Such a statement he made in an interview with “Kommersant Vlast”, published on Saturday, April 1.
According to Lahey, the presence of Russian military forces in Georgia will not stop the country’s accession to NATO. The Alliance recognizes the territorial integrity of the Republic, but does not intend to go into conflict with Russia.
“When Georgia will receive an invitation to NATO, it will have to decide on the status of these territories. Because nobody will use the fifth paragraph in these areas,” — said the representative of NATO.
Lahey stressed that the Alliance is “definitely not” to war with Russia in Abkhazia. He also recalled that the task of NATO is to protect peaceful relations.
The fifth article of the NATO Charter speaks of the principle of collective defence. It the attack of a third country on one of the members of the Alliance qualifies as an attack on the organization as a whole and ensures that the victim of aggression, defense of allies.
On 14 March the President of Russia Vladimir Putin ordered to sign an agreement with South Ossetia on the order of occurrence of the number of units of its armed forces into the Soviet armed forces.
In November 2016, Putin signed a law on ratification of the agreement with Abkhazia about the creation of the United forces.