These examples of co-operation lend weight to the argument put forward by Henry Kissinger and George Shultz in an article published earlier this week in the Washington Post, "that the fundamental interests of the United States, Europe and Russia are more aligned today - or can be made so - even in the wake of the Georgian Crisis, than at any point in recent history.

They believe: "The six points put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy provide a framework for a solution of the Georgian Crisis formally accepted by all the parties: a genuinely independent Georgia, within its existing borders, while the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - disputed since the founding of Georgia - continues as the subject of negotiation within the security framework".

Russia's genuinely felt resentment and anger over the Western response to the Georgian Crisis stands to continue to dog relations despite the recent cooling of the rhetoric, and as several noble Lords have mentioned, NATO expansion remains a potential flashpoint.

The Georgian Crisis was a further pressing reminder that European countries have serious energy security issues to deal with.