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Russia urges NATO to restore military dialogue — diplomat

The official underscored that the sides should work on avoiding misinterpretation of each other’s intentions

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Russia and NATO will be unable to resolve existing problems without resuming a dialogue between military experts, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told reporters on Friday.

"The main thing today is to find ways towards de-escalation, to strengthen the instruments of preventing dangerous incidents of military nature and to work on avoiding the misinterpretation of each other’s intentions," the Russian diplomat said, responding to a question from TASS about the prospects for a dialogue between Russia and NATO.

Quite specific proposals to NATO were formulated by the foreign ministers of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) member states, Grushko said.

"In particular, they stated the need to push increased military activity away from the borders of contact because this is very dangerous," the Russian deputy foreign minister noted.

"It is necessary to be more transparent with regard to military activity as a whole," Grushko said.

"There are no doubts that if NATO is really interested in pursuing this path, and the leaders of the alliance’s member states and the organization itself are endlessly talking about that, it is necessary to restore normal working contacts in the military sphere," Grushko stressed.

"Without this professional dialogue between the militaries, it will be simply impossible to implement all that I spoke about," the Russian deputy foreign minister concluded.