The Russian Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has proposed holding a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council next month, but the Kremlin has not yet said whether it will take part.
“We are considering it,” a spokesman for the Kremlin was quoted on December 26 as saying, according to TASS.
The format of the meeting and the composition of the Russian delegation are being looked at, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said, TASS reported on December 26.
A spokesman for NATO was quoted by AFP as saying that the alliance has contacted the Kremlin to secure its attendance.
“We are in touch with Russia” about the meeting, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified.
The NATO-Russia Council was set up in 2002 but is currently inactive because of the conflict in Ukraine’s east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
If the meeting takes place on January 12 as Stoltenberg proposed, it would be the first meeting of the council in 2 ½ years and would take place on the first day of a two-day meeting of the military chiefs of NATO’s 30 member states in Brussels.
The January 12 meeting is the first proposed by Stoltenberg since Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among other things.
President Vladimir Putin, speaking on December 23 during his annual news conference, urged the West to meet the demands “immediately,” listing a litany of grievances about Ukraine and NATO.
Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian state TV on December 26 that he would ponder various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands. Russia’s response “could be diverse,” he said, adding: “It will depend on what proposals our military experts submit to me.”
U.S. officials have said that some of the demands are either unworkable, impossible, or fundamentally contrary to Western values, but the United States also has said it is ready to engage in talks regarding the demands in early January. This includes bilaterally, through NATO, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The talks have been proposed against the backdrop a buildup of Russian military troops near Ukraine’s borders in a possible prelude to an invasion. The United States and European Union have threatened Moscow with harsh consequences in the event of a military escalation.
Russia has denied an intention of launching an invasion.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on December 25 that more than 10,000 troops had finished monthlong drills near Ukraine, and that the soldiers involved were returning to their permanent bases.
