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28th Mar 2024

EU-Russia 'business as usual' impossible, Lithuania says

  • The TV Tower memorial in Vilnius where Soviet forces killed 13 civilians in a 1991 uprising - Lithuanian memories are raw (Photo: Wikipedia)

The EU should consider diplomatic sanctions against Russia and speed up Georgia and Ukraine's EU and NATO integration to show Moscow that "muscle-flexing" does not work, Lithuanian foreign minister, Petras Vaitiekunas, said in an interview with EUobserver.

"We cannot and will not pretend that the EU will continue doing 'business as usual' with Moscow. This aggression has damaged the EU-Russian partnership," the minister said on Tuesday (19 August), as Russian tanks remained parked 45 kilometres from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, despite a Franco-Russian agreement for troops to pull out.

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The Russian army launched a massive ground, air and naval assault on Georgia on 7 August after Georgia fought back against Russian-backed rebels in its breakaway South Ossetia region.

Germany, France and Italy have refused to strongly condemn Russian actions so far, with Germany warning against isolating Russia via rash diplomatic moves. But former communist EU states such as Lithuania have lined up on Georgia's side.

Mr Vaitiekunas said there will be a "substantial discussion" of potential EU sanctions at an EU foreign ministers meeting on 5 September and predicted the EU will find common ground despite its internal east-west divide.

"The EU should evaluate whether it is possible to continue in an unaltered way the post-PCA talks [negotiations on a new EU-Russia treaty], visa dialogue or other cooperation activities," he explained.

"We have seen some disagreements between EU member states on many occasions, including the Georgia issue. Still, it does not create a deep rift."

In the short-term, he urged the EU to take part in an "international monitoring and peacekeeping force" to be deployed in a "clearly specified time and territories," and to push for the "return of refugees and displaced populations, alongside humanitarian action."

The UN estimates the recent conflict has created 150,000 new refugees, amid reports that South Ossetian paramilitaries have burned ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia to stop Georgian people from coming back.

A previous war in the 1990s saw some 200,000 ethnic Georgians flee from another Russian-backed separatist province, Abkhazia, with Russia last week indicating it will help the separatists keep Georgians out of Abkhazia and South Ossetia for good.

Frozen conflicts

In the longer-term, the Lithuanian foreign minister - who was in Tbilisi for the duration of the recent five-day war - said the EU must speed-up Georgia's integration with the EU and NATO to show Russia it cannot sabotage pro-western governments in its near-abroad by military means.

He also urged greater EU engagement in Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan, to reduce the risk of South Ossetia-type scenarios in other disputed regions: Russian-backed separatist movements also exist in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, Moldova's Transdniestria province and Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"NATO refusing to grant a MAP [Membership Action Plan] for Georgia and Ukraine at the Bucharest summit made a principle mistake. We can say that it partly led to the situation that we have in Georgia today," Mr Vaitiekunas said, after France and Germany blocked the MAP move at a NATO meeting in Romania in April.

"By giving a MAP to Georgia and to Ukraine we [would] clearly show to Russia how unhelpful it is to even try flexing its muscles," he added. "The [EU] visa facilitation issue for Georgia will have to be raised further, as well as a preparation of a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement."

"The EU and NATO should be much more involved in the resolution of frozen conflicts, especially in Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria, in order to reach peaceful solutions."

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