The International Herald Tribune [1]. BRUSSELS, Belgium [2]: French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed Friday for a resumption of European Union talks with Russia frozen after the invasion of Georgia — despite opposition from some eastern nations that accuse Moscow of failing to honor cease-fire terms.
France wants to relaunch the talks on a wide-ranging political and economic partnership, arguing that having constructive discussions are better than having troubles fester.
"Do we have to create a crisis between Europe and Russia on top of everything?" Sarkozy told reporters after chairing a summit of all 27 EU countries. "It doesn't seem very reasonable to me."
Tensions between Russia and the West had been mounting even before the Georgian conflict, which pushed strains to levels not seen since the Cold War. The crisis sidetracked talks the EU hoped would persuade Russia to open its vast and lucrative energy sector to European investors in exchange for giving Russian energy giants greater access to its market.
The EU froze the talks Sept. 1, saying they would resume only after Russia had met the terms of Sarkozy-brokered truce which called for both Russia and Georgia to pull troops back to positions held before the August war.
In line with the peace plan, Moscow has withdrawn its forces from parts of Georgia beyond the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the number of Russian troops in the separatist areas is much higher than before the war.
Poland and Lithuania argued it was wrong to resume business with Moscow so soon after the invasion of Georgia and its recognition of the breakaway regions.
"At this point it, it would be difficult to see that Russia should be rewarded," Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters. "I noted that Russia has faced no sanctions, and that is not a good practice."
Although the EU does not technically need unanimous agreement among its 27 member states to resume the talks, the bloc's leaders want to avoid a split that would be caused by going forward despite the objections of Lithuania and Poland.
France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, wants to revive the deal at a Nov. 14 summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the French city of Nice. The agreement would replace a deal signed in 1997 which has lost much of its relevance owing to Russia's new energy wealth and increasingly assertive foreign policy.
Sarkozy said the EU would continue to keep a close eye on Russian actions and expressed concern about Medvedev's threat this week to deploy short-range missiles in Russia's Kaliningrad region which borders Poland and Lithuania. Russia has denounced an American plan to place a battery of 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a related missile defense radar in the Czech Republic, saying it threatened Russian security.
"If we have disagreements, it much better to talk about them than to ignore each other and refuse to meet," Sarkozy said.
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Associated Press Writers Constant Brand and Raf Casert contributed to this story