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The NATO-Russia council may meet in January for the first time in two and a half years, diplomatic sources said yesterday (Saturday), but Moscow has not yet committed to it.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation official confirmed that its secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, had decided to convene such a council on January 12 and that the alliance was in contact with Moscow on the issue.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed it had received the proposal but added that it was still being studied, with the order and date of the talks still to be finalised.
However, "we are open to dialogue," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova assured, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The build-up of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine has been causing "concern" in the West for weeks. For its part, Russia is demanding "security guarantees" from Western countries, including an unequivocal guarantee that there will be no admission of Ukraine to NATO.
The Organization rejects this demand; however, Stoltenberg has repeatedly expressed his intention to hold a discussion on all issues on which there are differences in the NATO-Russia council.
This group last met in July 2019. Since then, all attempts to set a date for new talks have proved fruitless.
[/P]One of the reasons is that Russia does not want discussions on the armed conflict in Ukraine to take place within the council, setting a condition that NATO member states in Eastern Europe in particular do not even want to hear.
Source: in.gr
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