Ukraine and Georgia will not join NATO next year, the trans-Atlantic alliance’s top official said Tuesday.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Ukraine decided to end its long-standing bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while Georgia remained interested but would not become a member in 2014, Russia’s RIA Novosti news service reported.
Both countries will still have partnership action plans with the alliance and will still work together, Rasmussen said before a two-day NATO defense ministers’ meeting began in Brussels.
Ukraine and Georgia, lobbying to become NATO members for years, both enjoy full support for their bids from the United States, but alliance members rejected a proposal to offer them membership in 2008, RIA Novosti said.
