By KUNA,
Brussels : European Union foreign ministers began their formal monthly meeting in Brussels Monday with the focus on the crisis in Georgia.
They are expected to decide on the EU’s 200-strong civilian peace mission to Georgia with France and Germany expected to contribute the largest number of peacekeepers. A French EU presidency source told journalists in Brussels Friday that the mission in the first phase will be deployed by October 1 in the zones adjacent to the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia .
The source, however, noted the long-term goal would be to deploy the EU mission across the entire Georgian territory. But Russia which has recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has rejected the dispatch of EU peacekeepers in the breakaway regions.
“South Ossetia and Abkhazia are now sovereign states. The governments of these two countries must agree in order for international observers to be sent on their territories,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in a recent interview.
The ministers will also discuss EU-Serbia ties, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Belarus.