Antony Blinken, US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for the post of State Secretary, said that if Georgia meets the criteria for NATO membership then the alliance should keep its door open for the country. In such way he responded to the US Senator Randal Paul’s question on NATO enlargement.

“Russia occupies Georgia, occupies proxy troops, occupies part of Ukraine. So I think adding either of them to NATO not only be provocative, you have to think about what comes next. It means if you are obligated to defend our NATO allies we would be voting for war. So I would not vote that Georgia to NATO”, - said Senator Paul.

“Actually, I think the opposite. I think with regard to NATO membership, there is a very good reason. Russia has proved aggressive against countries that are not actually in NATO and under the umbrella. We have seen in the past, the countries that have joined NATO have not been the same target of Russia”, - answered Blinken.

He served as the US Deputy National Security Advisor between 2013 and 2015 and Deputy Secretary of State between 2015 and 2017 under President Barack Obama.