European Union foreign ministers pushed Friday for agreement on launching talks on a strategic political deal with Russia at an informal meeting in Slovenia, according to dpa. "We are working on a new partnership between the EU and Russia ... Russia is a friend, we have had our relations developing in a positive way for a very long time and they should continue," Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who hosted the meeting, said. "I hope that the discussions that we will have today will set aside the hindrances which have stopped us opening talks in the past. I trust that, even if not formally, we will take the first steps towards opening talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PAC)," Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. Relations between the EU and Russia are currently governed by a PAC agreed in 1997. That deal was initially set to last 10 years, with a successor to be negotiated by the end of 2007. But new EU member states Poland and Lithuania, who joined the union in 2004, have so far blocked the opening of talks on a new and wide-ranging deal establishing cooperation on economic, judicial, foreign-policy and cultural issues. "We must make progress. We must give a sign that we are starting talks with Russia again," Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said. "Russia is potentially a very, very important partner of the EU. I think that the unity of EU countries is very important in ensuring that there is a structured and effective partnership with Russia," Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband added. Poland's veto was provoked by a Russian ban on its meat and vegetable products, while Lithuania protests against the closure of a Russian pipeline feeding crude oil to its only refinery - a pipeline ironically called "Druzhba," or "Friendship." Poland's stance has softened since Russia pledged to lift the meat ban and came to a deal Wednesday on the vegetable issue, leaving Lithuania's concerns over energy as the main apparent stumbling-block to opening talks. "Agreements on energy cooperation belong as an integral part of this (PAC). We understand the concerns of some states regarding the security of their energy supplies - that is a question which must be solved within the PAC," Steinmeier said. "Given the centrality of European markets to the Russian economy and the supply of Russian energy, I think there is the potential for partnership, but for a partnership of equals, not the partnership of on the one hand the supplicant, on the other hand someone in a dominant position," Miliband said. "Without the Lithuanians, there is no deal," Rupel said simply, adding that he hoped talks on the PAC could start before Slovenia hands over the EU's rotating presidency on July 1.
