The FINANCIAL — VILNIUS, Lithuania has dropped its veto of a mandate for the start of talks on a new EU-Russia partnership and cooperation pact, although the EU will consider its complaints during negotiations with Moscow, Lithuanian radio said.
Foreign ministers from Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland and Sweden gathered for talks in Vilnius on on May 11 after Lithuania blocked a mandate on a new EU-Russia treaty at a foreign ministerial meeting in Luxembourg on April 24.
The DELFI news agency quoted Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, as saying that "some of Lithuania's recommendations will be included in the mandate." He said a compromise had been reached that would make it possible to sign the mandate.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said all four Lithuanian claims had been "fixed in writing," and that an agreement had been reached to continue negotiations on the issue with the other 23 EU members.
The Baltic nation has demanded that Russia resume oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, find a solution to 'frozen' conflicts in Moldova and Georgia and cooperate in investigations into alleged attacks on Lithuanian border guards by Soviet troops, as well as compensation for Lithuanians deported to labor camps during the Soviet era.
Lithuanian radio said the four foreign ministers would travel to Georgia later on Monday in an attempt to ease tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi around Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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