Most EU member states confirm course for partnership with Russia: Russian MFA

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REGNUM publishes commentary of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the outcomes of the extraordinary summit of the European Union held in Brussels Sep 1, 2008.

''European Union's summit was quite predictable, for even before it was held, statements of European politicians had been abundant. The summit failed to go without appeals by a number of countries to impose sanctions against Russia and freeze relations, without attempts to condemn our policy by unconscientious manipulation of facts that had led to the events in the Caucasus. Most important, however, is that they remained a minority, while the majority of EU member states displayed a responsible approach, confirmed the course for cooperation with Russia, being well aware of the implications of mutually profitable cooperation, in which a lot has been achieved in the recent years.''

''Certainly, we cannot agree with a significant number of biased assertions about Russia, contained in the summit's conclusive declaration, including the thesis on our unproportional reaction to Georgia's aggression. By the way, the action of Tbilisi has not been yet adequately assessed, as well as the action of those who supplied weapons to Georgia, in violation of OSCE and EU regulations.''

''What about the practical conclusions following the EU summit, the intention to suspend negotiations on the new Partnership Agreement is regrettable, although we in Moscow for the past two years have become used to the artificial obstacles on the way to signing this document. We are interested in its being signed just to the extent that the European Union is interested in it. At this point, there are enough opportunities for developing mutually profitable cooperation of Russia with European states in a great number of fields. Altogether, we are convinced that the whole complex of our partnership with EU should not be made hostage of difference in opinions on this or that particular issue.''

''Our cooperation is mutually beneficial, and the mutual gain is so big that it would be at least imprudent to threaten all this. As far as we are concerned, we are inclined for constructive, equal collateral action and continuation of dialog on all subjects, including those on which our positions differ. This is, actually, how it should be between partners. On such a foundation, it is always possible to find decisions on the most complex problems, as proven by the initiative of the President of France that was crowned with adoption on August 12 in Moscow of the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan on settling the situation after the assault of the Georgian troops on Tskhinval.''

''Russia strictly follows the six-article agreements without attempting to alter them. We have fulfilled everything pertaining to our commitments. We have also introduced concrete proposals on the ways of implementation of the agreement articles that are connected to action of the international community. We actively cooperate with OSCE in increasing the number of the organization's observers in Georgia; we have proposed to organize under its aegis an international police force; we advocate the European Union's active role in these structures. Their full-fledged deployment in the security zones, demilitarization of these zones, and mutual approval of guarantees of the non-use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia will make possible creation of international mechanisms for maintaining security of these republics in agreement with articles 5 and 6 of the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan. Naturally, it is also necessary to ensure that the article of the plan demanding pullout of the Georgian troops to their barracks is completely carried out. We expect that, during the coming visit of the President of France to Moscow on September 8, issues of practical implementation of the conflict settlement plan are discussed in detail.''

As REGNUM reported earlier, the European Union at an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Sep 1 condemned action of Russia in Georgia following the latter's armed aggression against South Ossetia of Aug 7, 2008 and Russia's recognition of sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Heads of the European states called on Russia to dialog based on the principals of international law.