MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Moscow believes it is important to resume dialogue in the NATO-Russia Council with participation of military to de-escalate the situation, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for all-European cooperation, Andrey Kelin, said.
"Today US troops as part of several brigades, including armored and aviation ones, are returning to Europe. Five advanced storage facilities for heavy military hardware for brigades are being put into operation," the diplomat said speaking at the annual conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe devoted to security issues.
"The number of drills, and the activity of the Navy and Air Force of the alliance has doubled," he said. "Missile shields are being built. This was earlier called escalation of military tensions in Europe."
"We believe that for de-escalation we should use all the tools," the diplomat said. "There is the need to resume dialogue in the NATO-Russian Council with participation of the military. It was set up for that."
Kelin recalled that Russia has put forward several initiatives to overcome the growing confrontation. "However, all of them were rejected by our Western partners under far-fetched pretexts," he said. "The Treaty on European Security, proposed by us, was immediately called a hopeless political slogan. They say only NATO can provide real security." "This is such an undignified final of the principle of indivisible security," Kelin stressed.
Impossible to improve ties ‘at one go’
It’s impossible to improve relations between Russia and NATO at one go, even at a high level, according to Kelin.
"Such things cannot be settled at one go," the diplomat said on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe devoted to security issues. "There are plenty of contradictions, difficulties and mutual misunderstanding between Russia and the alliance. That’s why clearing the debris that emerged over the past years mostly due to NATO’s decisions, not us, is a rather long way to go."
The diplomat said he has no information if the Russian and US leaders may meet and discuss relations between Moscow and NATO. "Most likely, they will discuss issues related to the acute crises, namely in Syria and on the Korean Peninsula," he said.