NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wants to hold a NATO-Russia Council meeting in January for the first time in two and a half years, a report said. Both sides said they’re ready for talks to defuse tensions around Ukraine.
Stoltenberg decided to convene a meeting on January 12 and was in contact with Moscow on the matter, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on Saturday, quoting an unnamed NATO official.
It was not immediately clear if Moscow agreed to the proposal, but Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that the country was ready for “direct dialogue” with NATO. She confirmed that NATO offered to convene a meeting to discuss the tensions surrounding Ukraine. “We’re looking now at how we can arrange that,” Zakharova said.
Russia wants NATO to sign a treaty that would ban the bloc’s further expansion eastward. This would effectively block Ukraine’s aspirations to join the US-led military bloc. Moscow has repeatedly said that it sees the bloc’s military infrastructure along its borders as a threat.
Stoltenberg rejected Russia’s demand, arguing that Ukraine has a “right to choose its own path.” The bloc maintains what it calls an ‘open door policy’, meaning that any country can join if it meets certain criteria.
At the same time, Stoltenberg said NATO was willing to talk to Russia. “We remain ready for meaningful dialogue with Russia. And I intend to call a new meeting of the NATO-Russia Council as soon as possible in the New Year,” he said this week.
The simmering decades-long tensions between Russia and NATO have increased in recent months, as Western officials and media claim that Moscow is preparing to potentially invade Ukraine. Russia has denied these claims.
