France, Germany Against Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova Joining NATO - French MP

France and Germany are against Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia becoming NATO member states, considering it a provocation, a French senator said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has also repeatedly stressed that NATO expansion toward its borders would aggravate tensions and undermine regional security.

"France and Germany are both categorically against Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova joining NATO. This would be an absolute provocation," Aymeri de Montesquiou said during a meeting with Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament.

The Ukrainian parliament ended the country's non-aligned status in 2014, and started to seek NATO membership. Several French politicians have spoken out against Ukraine becoming a member of the alliance, including President Francois Hollande.

In 1994, Georgia started cooperation with NATO after Tbilisi joined the Partnership for Peace, a program for practical bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and the alliance.

NATO said Georgia could become a member if it complied with the bloc's standards, following Tbilisi's five-day war with Russia in 2008.

In April, Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti said the country's membership of NATO could significantly reinforce Moldova's security. He said if the decision depended on him, he would vote for it. Moldova currently has a non-aligned status under its constitution.