EU Foreign Minister discuss situation in Caucasus
A two-day meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Avignon will focus on the situation in the Caucasus and hammer out details of a planned civilian mission to Georgia.
The mission would send about 200 EU personnel to monitor compliance with a French-brokered peace deal. It could leave as early as next week, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due in Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Medvedev on Sept. 8.
EU leaders have already warned Russia that talks slated for September 15 and 16 on a new partnership between Moscow and Brussels would be "indefinitely postponed" if Russia failed to fully comply with the Georgian peace agreement and left its troops in Georgia. But the EU has stopped short of imposing threatened diplomatic sanctions on Russia, BBC Russian reports.
The mission would send about 200 EU personnel to monitor compliance with a French-brokered peace deal. It could leave as early as next week, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due in Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Medvedev on Sept. 8.
EU leaders have already warned Russia that talks slated for September 15 and 16 on a new partnership between Moscow and Brussels would be "indefinitely postponed" if Russia failed to fully comply with the Georgian peace agreement and left its troops in Georgia. But the EU has stopped short of imposing threatened diplomatic sanctions on Russia, BBC Russian reports.
