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U.S. Senate rejected the resolution to push NATO Membership for Georgia

16:15 | 08.12.2011 | Analytic

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8 December 2011. PenzaNews. Attempt of one of senators to achieve acceptance of the resolution by the upper chamber of the Congress of the USA to push NATO Membership for failed.

U.S. Senate rejected the resolution to push NATO Membership for Georgia

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According to “The Daily Caller”, last week, while most senators were focused on the important national issues of war funding and Americans’ constitutional liberties, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) seemed more concerned with the fate of a foreign country. Behind the scenes, Rubio moved to have a unanimous consent vote that would have hastened Georgia’s entry into NATO. The unanimous consent vote never happened because Senator Rand Paul single-handedly prevented it.

The text of the publication said: “This is not a triviality. Make no mistake: Bringing Georgia into NATO could lead to a new military conflict for the United States, which is why any move that would facilitate Georgia’s entry into the alliance should be publicly debated. Rubio’s attempt to push this through by unanimous consent — that is to say, without any formal debate or vote — is highly suspect and calls into question the senator’s better judgment.”

In turn, “The American Spectator” wrote that the document called for the President to lead a diplomatic effort to get approval of Georgia's Membership Action Plan during the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago.

The independent Washington journalist Joshua Kucera specializing on the problems of safety in the Central Asia, Caucasus and the Near East, the author of a blog “The Bug Pit” on the site eurasianet specified that Rubio and Paul are both new senators, elected in 2010, and embody the two poles of the Tea Party's foreign policy: Rubio for a muscular American exceptionalism, and Paul for a small-government isolationism.

Joshua Kucera also admitted that an observer “The American Conservative” “Daniel Larison, probably, not without the bases, considers attempt of Rubio by the symbolical step which purpose was to hook Russia but which wouldn't render real influence on an existing state of affairs even in case of acceptance of its resolution by the Senate of the USA”.

Daniel Larison said in his publication: “Renewed efforts to bring Georgia into NATO would not only sour U.S.-Russian relations, which is probably what Rubio wants, but it would necessarily heighten tensions between Georgia and Russia and could precipitate a new round of fighting. NATO membership for Georgia serves no American interest, and the indications of support that the U.S. gave to Georgia during the Bush administration proved disastrous for Georgia as well.”

He wrote: “That said, Rubio’s amendment would not have mattered very much if it had passed. One reason that Georgia was not brought into NATO earlier is that leading European governments had no interest in extending the alliance’s security guarantees to such a poor and fragmented state.”.

Joshua Kucera said that it's interesting that Rubio's resolution would have pushed for the Membership Action Plan for Georgia.

He said: “Members of the Alliance have refused this idea in 2008, having replaced with its Commission of the NATO-GRUZIJA, and since then it didn't rise any more that, apparently, has understood and has accepted, judging by its public statements, even the Georgian government”.

At the same time, Joshua Kucera put several rhetorical questions remaining without the answer.

Washington journalist said: “I wonder, are Georgia's lobbyists quietly pushing MAP behind the scenes? Or is Rubio going rogue on this one? And in what looks to be an atmosphere of heightened tension between the U.S. and Russia, I wonder if this is something the Republican presidential candidate will make an issue of in the campaign next year".

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