"The majority of Alliance members have stated that neither Georgia nor Ukraine is needed in NATO, not now or in the foreseeable future," State Duma International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachyov told reporters in Brussels.
He said the United States is "isolated" in its support for Georgia and Ukraine's membership plans.
A two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers began in Brussels today, and is set to address Ukraine and Georgia's requests to join the Membership Action Plan (MAP), which would pave the way to full membership in the military alliance.
At NATO's summit in April, the alliance refused to admit the two post-Soviet countries to MAP, over French and German concerns that the move would unnecessarily provoke Russia, but promised to review the decision in December.
Kosachyov said other members have now come to realize the seriousness of the problems NATO would face if it admitted Georgia and Ukraine, and do not want to "hang an anchor around its neck."
He highlighted the problems currently faced by NATO in Afghanistan, the Congo, Darfur, and Iraq, from which "no exit is yet to be seen."
Kosachyov said that politicians in the U.S. and their pro-Western allies in Ukraine and Georgia have so far refused to acknowledge the concerns of most NATO members on the issue. The U.S. is not interested "in throwing out two projects only half way down the road as there was a lot of money spent on them," he said.
According to various diplomatic sources, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg and the Netherlands believe it is too early to let Georgia and Ukraine into MAP. The United States, Poland and three ex-Soviet Baltic states support the two countries' bids.
Russia strongly opposes NATO's expansion into former Soviet territory. The issue is one of the main points of contention between Russia and NATO, along with the planned U.S. missile shield in Central Europe and Russia's role in the August war with Georgia. Russia-NATO dialogue was frozen in the aftermath of the conflict.
