British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, said they would support resumption of EU partnership talks with Russia.
 
“While noting that a strategic partnership with Russia, based on common values is not in place as of today, we can support resuming negotiations on the new EU Russia Framework agreement because we believe that the issues that will be covered are in the EU's interests as well as Russia's,” Bildt and Miliband said in a joint statement released on November 10, just ahead of EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

The statement also says: “We believe that the EU should be clear about the basis on which it is resuming the negotiations. We are not returning to business as usual, nor are we turning the page on the conflict in Georgia. The EU will stick to the tough mandate that has been agreed for the negotiations.”

The two issues – EU-Russia partnership talks and Georgia - have been interlinked since September 1, when EU leaders took a decision, which reads: “Until troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August, meetings on the negotiation of the Partnership Agreement [with Russia] will be postponed.”

Russia has withdrawn its troops since then from the areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but it still keeps troops inside the two breakaway regions, including in those areas, where there was no Russian military presence before the August war.

“Sweden and the UK welcome the fact that Russian troops have withdrawn from the areas adjacent to the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a way that has enabled EU monitors to start to deploy,” the joint statement reads. “However, we are deeply concerned that Russia has not yet withdrawn to its pre 7 August positions as the EU has made clear that it must. We therefore urge Russia to fully implement both the 12 August and 8 September EU brokered peace agreements. We are also concerned that OSCE as well as EU monitors have still been prevented from entering South Ossetia.”