Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary-General of NATO, believes it is time to lay out a strategy for Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.

"We promised both Georgia and Ukraine seats at the NATO table in 2008, and it’s time we set out an action plan to realise our promise,” Rasmussen states in his article “On Russia, NATO cannot fold” published on the American website Politico on January 3.

Rasmussen also emphasises the need to end Russian President Vladimir Putin's "de facto veto" over Ukraine and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic ambitions.

"We should end Putin’s de facto veto on Ukraine and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, achieved by fomenting low-level conflicts in these countries, the intensity of which he turns up and down to suit his agenda,” the article reads.

On December 10, Russia issued a statement asking that NATO member states retract the 2008 Bucharest Summit resolution backing Georgia and Ukraine's ambition to join the alliance.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry says Russia's statements on the Bucharest summit decision are "unacceptable," and that Georgia has the "sovereign right" to join the alliance based on the wishes of the majority of Georgians.

Russia controls 20% of Georgian territory.

From August 1, 2009, to September 30, 2014, Rasmussen served as NATO's 12th Secretary-General.