EU moves to boost ties with Caucasus nations
Carl Bildt - Photo EU Council
(BRUSSELS) - The European Union announced plans Tuesday to work towards stronger ties with South Caucasus nations Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, dismissing concern about Russian ire at the move.
"These countries are sovereign nations and they have the right to choose their own destiny. They have expressed their view for a closer relationship with the EU," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency.
"They have their right to choose their own future, not to be restricted by the wishes of everyone else," he added, following talks in Brussels with his fellow EU foreign ministers.
Russia still considers the region to be part of its neighbourhood. Following a short war with Georgia last year it recognised, and controls, two breakaway Georgian regions -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The EU is not suggesting any sudden tightening of ties with the South Caucasus as a whole.
What the EU ministers asked the European Commission to do is to prepare separate mandates for Association Agreements with the three countries.
Under such deals, which the EU already has with several countries, the bloc would offer tariff-free access to EU markets along with financial and technical assistance in exchange for commitments to political, economic, trade or human rights reform.
"We are ready to prepare the negotiating mandates, on the basis of today's discussion," said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
He said that work should be concluded in November so that the process can move ahead.
He too dismissed the question of Russian opposition to strengthened ties between the EU and the South Caucasus nations.
"These are sovereign nations, and our interest is to engage with these countries because they want to engage with us," he told reporters.
EU officials were keen to stress that those negotiations would not necessarily proceed at the same pace for each nation or achieve the same results.
"While we want to move ahead with the three countries in the South Caucasus, their individual development will decide the speed and scope of our work," Rehn said.
There is no doubt that Georgia is in the lead in this regard.
Last month, the European Commission announced it had reached agreement with Georgia on easing visa rules and sending back illegal immigrants.
Georgia is keen to move closer to the EU and NATO, and the brief war with Russia in August 2008 added momentum.
"The way towards the EU and NATO is more open than ever," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said last month.
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