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Lawmaker says NATO needs Russia-NATO Council meeting to mask aggressive steps

NATO foreign ministers supported another meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ambassador level ahead of the Warsaw summit, due on July 8-9

© EPA PHOTO BELGA/BENOIT DOPPAGNE, archive

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Lavrov: Stoltenberg shouldn't have declared Russia-NATO Council meeting without discussion

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Alliance would like to hold a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council ahead of its forthcoming summit in the Polish capital Warsaw to create an impression it is in dialog with Russia, thus masking its aggressive decisions yet to be made, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Aleksey Pushkov, has said.

"The alliance needs a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council ahead of the Warsaw summit for the sake of creating an impression it is in dialog with Moscow and for masking the aggressive decisions to be made in Warsaw," Pushkov tweeted.

According to earlier reports, NATO foreign ministers supported another meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ambassador level ahead of the Warsaw summit, due on July 8-9, NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said upon arrival for the scheduled meeting of NATO’s foreign ministers. The date, details and modalities of the meeting were still to be agreed on, he said.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday Moscow had not yet received any messages regarding the alliance’s wish to hold a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council. He explained that if somebody wished to call an RNC meeting, consultations should be held first in order to produce a consensus.

"Invitations through a microphone without prior consultations mean that the host party is guided by different principles of conducting the dialog," he said.

The latest meeting of the Russia-NATO Council - the first in nearly two years was held in Brussels on April 20, with the ambassadors of all 28 member-states of the Atlantic Alliance taking part. Envoy to NATO Aleksandr Grushko represented Russia.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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