THE EU intends to resume talks with Russia on a strategic partnership agreement, despite the union's "unhappiness" at the situation in Georgia, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said.
Talks were put on hold on September 1st after Russia 's incursion into the Georgian rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on August 7th.
Mr Martin made it clear after a summit of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels yesterday that the EU's position towards Russia would follow the US line of "engagement", despite lingering concerns from Lithuania that conditions laid down in a French-brokered ceasefire agreement over the conflict in Georgia had not been met.
Lithuania said before the summit that it would not endorse a decision to resume negotiations, and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said after the meeting that "everybody agrees, with the exception of one country, for the partnership to be put back on the table".
Talks can still go ahead without unanimity and will be formally announced at an EU-Russia summit on Thursday.
"We've just in the past week finalised a document for a transatlantic paper on the future of the EU's relationship with the US; the US will be equally engaging with Russia, so it wouldn't make sense for Europe to cut itself off entirely," said Mr Martin.
"Ultimately, we are interdependent in so many ways - they are our largest trading partner. And in terms of security issues and from a strategic perspective, we need to continue our engagement."
Mr Martin will visit Georgia next week to observe the situation on the ground and to meet the EU's civilian observation mission there, which includes four Irish personnel.
Meanwhile, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea said the EU was divided on the deployment of a mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo to defuse escalating tensions between government forces and Tutsi rebels in the east of the country.
"There are mixed views," he said at the Brussels meeting. "People are in favour of trying to get a political solution there. There are people who argue very strongly in favour of UN-led intervention, whether it be through the aegis of the EU or whatever. But there are also equally strong arguments against it."
Mr Martin said the Irish would have no objection to an EU mission to help UN troops in Congo although, because of its commitments in Chad and Kosovo, the Government did not have the "spare capacity to engage".
