Alliance confirmed meeting of NATO-Russia Council on January 12 | News from Germany on world events

The meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the level of ambassadors will take place on January 12. This was confirmed on Tuesday, January 4, in the press service of the North Atlantic Alliance. “Any dialogue with Russia will have to take place on the basis of reciprocity, respond to NATO’s concerns about Russia’s actions … and be conducted in consultation with NATO’s European partners,” the alliance said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously announced that Russian officials would attend the NATO meeting in Brussels. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and other senior Russian diplomats are expected to take part in talks after meeting with US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman in Geneva on January 10, Reuters reported.

NATO agenda has not yet been outlined

NATO has not yet announced the agenda of the meeting. Moscow previously spoke of its intention to discuss European security issues, in particular, the deployment of NATO forces near the borders of the Russian Federation, as well as the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Alliance.

In turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized in December 2021 that he was proposing to convene an SNR at the beginning of 2022 “to discuss the situation in and around Ukraine.”

Negotiations in Geneva on Ukraine and arms control

Russia and the United States are expected to hold talks in Geneva on January 10 on Ukraine and arms control. A meeting in the format of the Russian Federation – Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is scheduled for January 13.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell previously said that the EU wants to take part in negotiations between the US and Russia on de-escalation of tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border and security issues. “We do not want and cannot afford to be outside spectators through whose heads decisions are made,” he said in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt.

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Author: Mikhail Bushuev