Ambassador John Bass, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, answered the question by Europetime.
Q - „At the NATO summit held in Bucharest in 2008, allies decided that Georgia would join NATO. The decision was reaffirmed at the subsequent summits. During your tenure as U.S. ambassador to Georgia, we have repeatedly heard your comments regarding the integration of Georgia into NATO. How do your earlier assumptions and expectations align with the present dynamics and process of the country’s integration into the Alliance?”
A - „I would first say that for many of us who spent time in Georgia or working with Georgians, particularly in the aftermath of the conflict in 2008 in which, yet again, Russia was attempting to determine how a neighboring country should live, dictate whether or not that country should be free to choose its own security relationships with, in this case, NATO – having been there in that period, it’s been very disturbing to see the evolution in recent years and particularly in recent months of the Georgian Dream government.
And if someone were to ask straight up, as I think is implicit in the question, when will Georgia become a member of NATO, the answer is that Georgia will become a member, I think, when allies assess that it is prepared to fulfill the obligations that come with membership, including upholding principles – core principles of democratic governance, including the fundamental principle that people are free to choose their own leaders. And unfortunately, since I was ambassador in Georgia, we have not seen Georgia progress to meeting those objectives. And unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a bit of work, quite a bit of retrograde, if you will. And as the U.S. ambassador who worked quite hard to ensure that there were the conditions in place to allow Georgian Dream to compete fairly in the parliamentary elections of 2012, it is deeply disturbing to see that same group now eroding the foundations of democratic governance and society.
And as a final observation, I would say it is both deeply disturbing and saddening to see the aspirations and dreams of an entire society being held hostage to the grievances of one individual: Bidzina Ivanishvili.“
John Bass was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 17, 2021, as the Under Secretary for Management. The Secretary of State designated John Bass as Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs on March 23, 2024.
A career Senior Foreign Service officer, he served as Senior Advisor at the Foreign Service Institute from 2020-2021, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan 2017-2020, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey from 2014 to 2017, Executive Secretary of the State Department from 2012 to 2014, and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia from 2009 to 2012. He began his diplomatic career in 1988 and has also served in positions in U.S. missions in Iraq, Italy, Belgium, and Chad.
