On Friday, the European Union announced it was restarting talks with Moscow for the purpose of entering into a comprehensive partnership agreement. Negotiations were suspended on September 1 after Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Since the suspension-Europe’s sole sanction for the Kremlin’s aggression-Moscow has not met the conditions Brussels had laid down for restarting discussions.

The EU, by going ahead at this time, may have merely been trying to increase Europe’s bargaining position by preventing the Kremlin from picking off member states one by one in separate negotiations. Yet the better response from Brussels would have been to prohibit any of them from dealing with Moscow until it complied with Europe’s conditions, especially the pullback of Russian troops. As the Wall Street Journal Europe noted yesterday, the resumption is “embarrassing.” French maneuvering to get the talks back on track were, the paper correctly noted, “spineless.”

Yet the resumption of these discussions-or surrender to the Kremlin if you prefer to call things as they actually are-might be viewed as understandable. After all, what do we expect of the Europeans when the American response to the invasion of Georgia has been so weak as well?

The restarting of talks with Russia, however, is taking place at a particularly consequential moment. The global financial architecture is disintegrating at the same time the international system of geopolitics is in transition. Worse, we are seeing at this juncture virtually every dangerous trend evident just before last century’s two great conflicts. As in the period before World War I, the shifting of alliances has added to the complexity of the global order, with the result that no great power-or even any conceivable combination of them-can effectively manage events. As in the period before World War II, the Western democracies are failing to stand together in the face of obvious threats posed by emerging authoritarian states. A deal between Brussels and Moscow could, conceivably, further the erosion of the international system by increasing its complexity and further fracturing the grand Atlantic Alliance.

The European Union-Russia talks have not started yet. The Lithuanians, made of sterner stuff than the French, have objected to the resumption. So President Bush, who still has time to improve his legacy, should pick up the phone to support his Baltic friends. After all, they know how to handle the Russians. And the stakes are a lot bigger for all of us than they look at this moment.

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