Last year's conflict in Georgia show how dangerous an eastward expansion by NATO can be, UPI cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying. Speaking today at a session of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council in Moscow, Lavrov said Russia's five-day confrontation with Tbilisi in August illustrates why European NATO members were right to block bids by Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance, RIA Novosti reported. "The Caucasus crisis showed how dangerous the automatic eastward expansion of NATO is," Lavrov said. "It is enough just to imagine what would have happened if Georgia had been a NATO member, as Russia would have still had no other option but to act as it did last August." The conflict, which Russia says it launched after Georgia sent troops into its runaway republic of South Ossetia, resulted in the suspension of the Russia-NATO Council, although the two sides have since agreed to resume work. "The Russia-NATO Council could, if all participants, including the EU, have the political will, become a constructive basis for cooperation … in the Euro-Atlantic space," Lavrov reportedly said, adding, "I don't think Russia could join NATO as it currently stands."
