MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. A senior Russian parliamentarian welcomed on Thursday a statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who proposed to hold a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, the first after military cooperation between Russia and NATO was suspended in April 2014 over the Ukrainian events.

"In my opinion, the very fact of holding a session of the Russia-NATO Council after a long break will undoubtedly become a major event of international life," said Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the upper house’s committee for defense and security.

He said the statement by the NATO secretary general looked like a kind of "sounding out the situation". "As far as I know, his words were heard here by those who take the decisions, and were received rather positively," he added.

"Now the Russian side waits for concrete proposals from the North Atlantic Alliance through official channels," he added.

Earlier, Jens Stoltenberg said NATO was mulling the possibility of holding a session of the Russia-NATO Council.

Sessions were suspended after on April 1, 2014 NATO stopped military cooperation with Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.