CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 65

BENIAMIN MAILYAN reintegration of former Soviet formations. 3 The current National Security Concept of Georgia stresses that the country “is a part of the European and Euro-Atlantic space. Therefore, the expansion eastward of NATO and of the European Union is important for Georgia”. 4 This concept explicitly states that the integration into NATO and the European Union is a top priority of Georgian foreign and security policy. 5 It also includes a fundamental element of the thesis of the very close relations between Tbilisi and Washington, which are based on the “strategic partnership charter” signed in January 2009 between the two countries. The same concept stated that Tbilisi also intends “to make the utmost of the potential of strategic partnership with Ukraine”. 6 Thus, despite significant shifts in global politics and economy, the foreign policy of Georgia has remained virtually unchanged since 2004. The pro-Western trend aimed at integration into Euro-Atlantic structures still dominates the foreign policy view of the ruling elite in Georgia not only after the “Rose Revolution”, but also after the end of “the era of Saakashvili”. Summing up, we can conclude that the main idea of the minds of the majority of the Georgian political elite remains the same – to speed up integration into the Western community of nations. But even in this situation, it is possible to distinguish close enough aspects of the same paradigm unambiguously. Firstly, although Georgia is not entirely a European country politically, it is no longer a post-Soviet state. Secondly, the most important project remains the modernization of the country to Western standards. Thirdly, this upgrade is only possible through close cooperation with European and Euro-Atlantic military-political institutions. 7 However, today Georgia is facing with a larger dilemma than a few years ago, the solution of which depends on the nature of the future development of the country. Despite all the promising statements, hereinafter “European” perspectives of Georgia are still uncertain. For example, the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, some countries, including Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, expressed that Georgia's 3 Beniamin Маilyan, “Rossiysko-gruzinskiye otnosheniya i vopros chlenstva Gruzii v SNG. Istoriko-kul’turniye osnovi social’no-politicheskoy modernizacii. Sbornik nauchnikh statey”, (in Russian), [Russian-Georgian relations and the issue of Georgia's membership in the CIS. Historical and cultural bases of social and political modernization. Collection of scientific articles]. Yerevan, Rossiysko-Armianskiy (Slavianskiy) Universitet, (2012): 87. 4 ”National Security Concept of Georgia”, Government of Georgia, https://mod.gov.ge/uploads/2018/pdf/NSC-ENG.pdf (accessed April 10, 2019). 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Beniamin Mailyan, “From the history of the formation of the post-Soviet foreign policy orientations of the ruling elite of Georgia: a retrospective look”, Contemporary Eurasia: clash of political interests, Vol. III no.1 (2014): 101-102. 65