The European Union should rethink its cooperation with Russia in the wake of its bloody dispute with Georgia, British Foreign Minister David Miliband said Wednesday.
"The EU will want to consider how it proceeds with its Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (with Russia)," Miliband said ahead of an emergency meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels, dpa reported.
Signed in 1994 and in force since the end of 1997, the agreement is designed to encourage political, commercial, economic and cultural cooperation between Russia and the EU.
Discussions on giving the European Commission a mandate to negotiate a new agreement with Russia finally ended in May, after Poland and Lithuania withdrew their vetoes, and a first round of talks was held in July.
With the EU largely dependent on Russian oil and gas for its energy needs, the British minister said the Georgian-Russian conflict had also highlighted the need for a stronger common EU energy policy.
But he also stressed that diplomacy, rather than force, should have been used to settle the conflict.
"It's unacceptable for difficult issues on Russia's borders to be settled by force," he said, noting that the EU had a duty to stand by those Eastern European nations that felt threatened by a resurgent Russia.
The sight of Russian tanks is "a chilling reminder of times we hoped had gone by," he said.