国际英语新闻：EU to send delegations to Georgia, Lithuania over Russia

The European Union is soon to send delegations to Georgia and Lithuania because these two countries' problems with Russia, the EU presidency Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel announced on Friday.

    An EU delegation is to travel to Georgia in the upcoming days to determine the actual situation in the country and to prevent possible escalation in Georgia's relations with Russia, said Rupel, who will lead the delegation.

    He denied that the visit to Tbilisi could be interpreted as a sign of EU's support for Georgia and said that the EU would not take sides in the dispute and would work towards a peaceful solution, the Slovenian official news agency STA reported.

    Rupel said he did not believe that Russia and Georgia were on the brink of war, as stated by the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Thursday.

    Another EU delegation headed by Rupel to visit Lithuania is to start EU-Russia talks, said the reports.

    The EU delegation traveling to Lithuania would try to make the Baltic country withdraw its objections to the mandate for the launch of talks on a new partnership pact between the EU and Russia.

    Rupel said that the EU wants to determine which exactly were the open issues and make steps toward a successful EU-Russia summit scheduled for the end of June in which the EU would like to strengthen cooperation with Russia especially in the field of energy supply.

    The Baltic country opposed the mandate presented by the Slovenian EU presidency saying it was not satisfactory and wanted Russia to fix the oil pipeline to the sole Lithuanian refinery and peacefully resolve Russia's conflicts with Georgia and Moldova.