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Russian senior diplomat dubs recent negotiations with NATO as "heart-to-heart talk"

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that the meeting was absolutely essential and it was some sort of a shake-up

BRUSSELS, January 12. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has described Wednesday’s negotiations with NATO as "a heart-to-heart talk."

"I think that [this meeting] was absolutely essential. Firstly, it was some sort of a shake-up. If the meeting had not taken place, it would have been impossible to bring up these issues in full action, as they have always been somehow in the background, but in the way they were discussed today, I do not remember such straightforwardness and incisiveness. It was a heart-to-heart talk," he said at a press conference after the NATO-Russia Council meeting.

Wednesday’s four-hour meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels marked the second stage in a series of talks between Moscow and the West on Russia’s security proposals. The first stage was the talks between Russia and the US that took place in Geneva on January 10, and the third stage will take place within the OSCE framework in Vienna on January 13.

The Russian delegation in Brussels is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin. NATO is represented by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and representatives of 30 NATO member states in Brussels.

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