And yes, it was always independent countries courting NATO to be allowed to join (and Georgia sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq for that, and still was refused - Ukraine had also sent their troops to these NATO missions). There was never any sort of NATO's drive to "encircle" any country ever since the end of the Cold War, the expansion on the side of the organisation has been extremely relucant and we in Poland also had to work hard to be allowed to achieve the accession to the pact. It took over 8 years of asking: https://www.gov.pl/web/national-defence/poland-in-nato-20-years

During your completely irrelevant "one inch" talk, we were still in the Warsaw Pact (named after our capital). As a satellite of the Soviet Union, the country that haven't existed for 30 years, and is now replaced by Ukraine, among others.

What in https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s021122h.htm also with the very same Shevardnadze "is unclear exactly" to you in the completely new situation now after the end of the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact too, when literally everything has changed?

What "color" was this "color revolution"?

And in the case I'd you didn't read:

Georgia's future as an independent nation is hinged on obtaining firm guarantees for the-protection of these very values and we, therefore, strongly welcome further eastward expansion of the Alliance. We congratulate all those nations that have been invited to become full members of NATO or will be offered to join in the very" near future. As the president of a Black Sea state, I am particularly satisfied that the invitations have been extended to Romania and Bulgaria. This brings the Black Sea area into NATO's sphere of interests and adds a new dimension to its security.

We welcome the progress in deepening the cooperation between NATO and Russia and the distinctive partnership that has been forged between NATO and Ukraine since we regard these developments as a cornerstone not only of the Euro-Atlantic, but also of global security.

South-East Europe, particularly the Caucasus region has been gaining ever greater importance for the entire continent and the Euro-Atlantic community at large. The region serves as a major outlet for the Caspian hydrocarbons to world markets and at the same time provides the shortest routes linking the West to the natural wealth, labor and markets in Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Far East. The same routes, however carry the risk of becoming thoroughfares for the spread of new transnational threats, different from those of the past including threats posed by terrorism. We, therefore, consider that the region of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, indeed merits the special attention the Alliance has shown by deepening cooperation with it.

Anyone who has spent at least a week in Georgia knows well that by virtue of the dynamic development of the civil society, practically every problem of serious concern becomes here a subject of heated public debate. Yet, I can also assure you that perhaps the only issue in the recent years against which no reasonable argument has ever been suggested is the Georgian public's perspective on the future of the country's national security which is widely seen in the context of the country's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. I am happy that at the Summit of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council I can declare that Georgia is determined to be a full member of NATO and is resolved to work hard to prepare for this historic mission.

Looks to me Shevardnadze was, let's say, much less interested even 20 years ago in your stupid "one inch" quote someone told him in the completely bygone era of a completely different geopolitical reality than you are now in 2022 somehow and for some reason. But you be you.