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NATO-Russia Council meeting at ambassadors’ level at final stage of preparation — diplomat

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov explained that the West is not ready to "burn bridges" of cooperation with Russia

© EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

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MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. The preparation for the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting at the level of ambassadors is at final stage and the agenda has been almost approved, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said on Friday.

"We are at the final stage of preparation of the NATO-Russia Council meeting at the level of ambassadors that will be held after a rather long pause. The agenda has been already almost coordinated that is weighted and takes our interests into account," Meshkov told the lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

"I do not rule out that it may take place in the coming weeks," the diplomat said answering a TASS question.

The diplomat explained that the West is not ready to "burn bridges" of cooperation with Russia.

In April 2014, the alliance halted all practical cooperation between NATO and Russia including in the NRC amid the Ukrainian conflict and Crimea’s reunification with Russia.

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The NATO-Russia Council (NRC), established at the NATO-Russia summit in Rome in May 2002, was conceived a tool for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation, joint decision and joint action. Under the NRC, 28 NATO member states and Russia have worked as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security issues of common interest.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in December 2015 that the organization decided to resume the Council’s work. At the Munich security conference in February, Stoltenberg said he discussed the possibility of the NATO-Russia Council work resumption with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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