France and Germany assured Georgia yesterday that a deal bringing it closer to the European Union would be sealed within weeks, moving to tighten ties with the ex-Soviet republic as tension mounts between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

The two core EU nations’ top diplomats affirmed the plans to speed up the signing of a deal to boost trade and political ties – the same kind of pact whose rejection by Ukraine in November of last year touched off the biggest East-West crisis since the Cold War.

“I am sure that by the end of June the agreement will have been signed and that it is an important milestone in the history of Georgian and European relations,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Tbilisi.

“This agreement is not aimed against anyone ... The EU’s economic relations with Georgia don’t place economic cooperation between Georgia and Russia in doubt,” he said during a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

No Nato, EU membership possible any time soon

Georgia has strategic importance because it is on the route of pipelines which carry oil and gas from the landlocked Caspian Sea, an alternative to Russian energy, to world markets.

Relations between Georgia and Russia were badly strained by a five-day war in 2008, when Moscow’s forces drove deep into the small Caucasus nation. That war was partly a result of Tbilisi’s drive to join Nato and to move closer to the EU.

Despite attempts by Moscow and Tbilisi to improve ties after a change of government in Georgia in 2012, they have still not restored diplomatic relations and last month Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region revived Georgian security concerns.

The US and the EU have stepped up support for other former Soviet republics in a tug-of-war with Moscow. Georgia and Moldova had been due to sign the EU “association agreement” by the end of this year, but in the light of the Ukraine crisis EU leaders agreed to aim to get the deals sealed by June because of fears they could come under Russian pressure.

“We don’t see any contradiction between the signing of this agreement and Georgia’s economic relations with other countries, particularly Russia,” Fabius said, in comments clearly designed to reassure Moscow.

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