EU/Russia

EU and Russia to resume negotiations

Article published on the 2008-11-14 Latest update 2008-11-15 09:56 TU

Sarkozy (L) and Medvedev at the start of the EU-Russia summit in Nice
(Photo: Reuters)

Russia and the European Union will resume strategic partnership talks on 2 December, three months after they were suspended because of the Georgian war. The announcement was made Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Nicolas Sarkozy, representing France which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, met at an EU-RUssia summit in the southern French city of Nice.

At the summit, Sarkozy urged Russia and the United States to stop threatening each other .

He described the US missile defense plan and Medvedev's missile proposals as twin threats to Europe.

"We could continue between Europe and Russia to threaten each other with shields, with missiles, with navies and so forth," said Sarkozy. "It would do Russia no good, Georgia no good and Europe no good."

Sarkozy said he would bring up the issue at a Nato summit in April, and called for a security summit with Russia under the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"It would not be a conclusive summit, but we could lay the foundations of what could be an accord between us," Sarkozy said. "Until then we should not talk about missile or shield deployments which lead to nothing for security, which complicate things and rather make things go backwards."

The two leaders also talked about how Europe and Russia plan to deal with the global financial crisis.

Following the meeting, a spokesperson announced that Russia and Europe will restart talks on how to manage diplomatic and commercial ties at a meeting in Brussels on 2 December. The last such accord was agreed on in 1997.

Europe has a particular interest in ensuring supplies of Russian oil and gas.

The EU stopped the negotiations on 1 September to protest Russia’s sending thousands of troops into Georgia, occupying territory around two breakaway provinces.

Lithuania and Georgia, which is not an EU member state, objected to Monday’s decision to resume talks.

In Nice, Sarkozy said that Moscow had “largely implemented” a ceasefire deal with Georgia.

As the two met in France, Russian lawmakers approved a change to the constitution that would extend presidential terms from four years to six.

In the first of three readings, the State Duma endorsed the change, with the second and third required readings to be held next week before they move on to the upper house.

The Kremlin said the changes would “ensure stable and progressive development of the country.”

Some see the extension of the mandate as a cue in for Medvedev to step down early to let Vladimir Putin return to the presidency.