Merkel backs Georgia’s Nato bid

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday in the Georgian capital that the ex-Soviet republic, currently mired in conflict with Russia, will join Nato.

“Georgia will become a member of Nato if it wants to — and it does want to,” she said before talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi.

It was one of the strongest statements yet of support for Georgia’s Nato membership bid, which is fiercely opposed by Russia.