Georgia’s parliamentary speaker, Davit Bakradze, indicated on September 12, that Tbilisi now wanted from NATO more than just reiteration of its 2008 Bucharest summit decision that the country would one day join the Alliance.

In an interview with Georgian TV station, Rustavi 2, Bakradze said that he was expecting NATO North Atlantic Council (NAC) and Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to reiterate the Bucharest summit decision when the NAC visits Georgia on November 9-10.

“But at the same time, naturally, our expectations are not limited with only the Bucharest [decisions]; our expectations are that this process [of NATO integration] will be accelerated and Georgia will become NATO member; we are ready for that,” Bakradze said.

“We have worked a lot for that in recent years. I can state it boldly today, that Georgia meets actually all the requirements, which can be put before a [NATO membership] candidate country.”

“There are Bucharest commitments, which clearly state, that Georgia will become NATO member. So we believe, that situation is ripe now to think about further steps,” Bakradze said.

He, however, also added, that decisions of that type “are not taken fast and easily.”

“We will try to speed up this process. We hope, that the visit of the Secretary General and a session of NAC in Tbilisi will help us to speed up this process in order to achieve our goal soon,” Bakradze said.