NATO aims to continue dialogue with Russia
By Kamila Aliyeva
NATO does not intend to "freeze" holding of meetings of the Russia-NATO Council and discusses possible dates with its Russian counterparts, Alliance’s official spokesperson Oana Lungescu said, RIA Novosti reported.
"NATO has no plan to ‘freeze’ the NATO-Russia Council. In fact, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in recent interviews that we are studying the possibility of holding another meeting of the Council. We are currently considering possible dates with our Russian counterparts," she said.
Meanwhile, Russia's Permanent Mission to NATO published on Twitter a statement by the Russian Representative to the Alliance, Alexander Grushko, who noted that "no one froze anything."
He said that we can rather note the activation of the political dialogue between Russia and NATO.
In early September, the official meeting between the chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel and Russia’s Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov took place in Azerbaijan’s capital.
“This face to face meeting demonstrates a clear mutual interest to maintain the military communication, in line with NATO’s policy of transparency and ongoing dialogue at the political level with senior Russian leadership,” the press service of NATO reported.
During this meeting, Pavel and Gerasimov agreed to continue using the military lines of communication in the future.
Some experts believe that this was a first step in trying to reconnect NATO and Russia in some kind of meaningful dialogue.
In 2014, NATO decided to suspend practical cooperation with Russia, while maintaining a political dialogue at the level of ambassadors and above.
Russia has repeatedly stated that it was not Moscow that suspended agreements with NATO and that's why the alliance should take steps to reanimate the interaction.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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