BERLIN (Thomson Financial) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Sunday against any knee-jerk reaction to the Caucasus conflict in relations with Russia.
'I do not advise ... any knee-jerk reaction such as suspending talks on a partnership and cooperation agreement (with the European Union). That would signify that such an agreement is more important to the EU than to Russia,' Steinmeier said in an interview with weekly Welt am Sonntag.
'Or Russia joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO): our interest in this is as great as Russia itself. Talks in the NATO-Russian Council are essential too. Because we need open lines of communication -- to Tbilisi and to Moscow,' Steinmeier told the paper.
The EU, which is highly dependent on Russian oil and gas imports, and Moscow held their first talks in July on a sweeping new strategic partnership aimed at redefining their ties.
The partnership is meant to replace an existing one from 1997, taking into account new political, economic and energy realities between a bigger EU and a more powerful and more assertive Russia.
The comments from Steinmeier, whose boss Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday and who was in Tbilisi on Sunday, appeared to stand in contrast to the position of some of Berlin's EU partners -- and also with that of the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that Moscow's international reputation had been left in tatters by its military action in Georgia.
'Russia overreached, used disproportionate force against a small neighbour and is now paying the price for that because Russia's reputation as a potential partner in international institutions, diplomatic, political, security, economic, is frankly, in tatters,' Rice told NBC's Meet the Press.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, warned on Sunday that Russian relations with the EU would be seriously damaged if Moscow failed to fully implement the peace deal it signed with Georgia.
He told Medvedev of the 'serious consequences that a failure to quickly and fully implement the deal would have on relations between Russia and the European Union,' Sarkozy's office said in a statement.
And Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday that the EU should reassess its relations with Russia after its 'aggressive' actions in Georgia and decide whether 'to proceed with the partnership and cooperation agreement.'
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the same day that he and his EU counterparts would address the state of relations with Russia at a meeting next month.
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