European Union foreign ministers sidelined Lithuanian objections Monday and decided to re-start talks on a strategic treaty with Russia which it froze after Russia's August war with Georgia, according to dpa. "It was a very solid discussion, all EU member states except one are in line to take up the (EU-Russia) partnership talks again," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who chaired the talks as holder of the EU's rotating presidency. But Lithuania reacted with outrage to the move, which comes just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attends a summit with top EU officials in France on Friday. Lithuania's Deputy Foreign Minister Zygimantas Pavilionis told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the French, who championed the move to re-open talks, had made a "serious historic mistake." "We are questioning the timing and we're questioning this U-turn of our (EU) positions. ... Is it the right signal to send to Kiev, to Moldova, to Belarus, even to the Baltic states today, that by military force you can change borders?" he asked dpa. EU leaders on September 1 froze talks in protest at Russia's occupation of Georgia, demanding that it pull its troops back to pre- conflict lines. Russia has since made a partial but incomplete withdrawal. But ahead of Monday's meeting, a growing number of member states said the bloc should return to the negotiating table, arguing that it was not in the EU's interest not to talk with its biggest neighbour and most important energy supplier. "We can support resuming negotiations ... because we believe that the issues that will be covered are in the EU's interests as well as Russia's," British Foreign Minister David Miliband and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt - among the most vocal critics of Russia's actions - said in a joint statement on Monday morning. Usually, EU foreign-policy decisions are taken by unanimity. However, in recent weeks officials have stressed that the EU leaders' decision on September 1 was to postpone talks, not formally halt them - leaving the EU's presidency and executive, the European Commission, the legal right to re-start talks.
