MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has announced to the alliance's foreign ministers the decision to disband the NATO-Russia Council, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski revealed to the media after a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels.

"Among the formal decisions, I ask you to note the Secretary General's statement that the NATO-Russia Council no longer exists," Sikorski stated at a press conference broadcast by TVP Info. "The NATO-Russia Council and the NATO-Russia Founding Act are no longer in effect," he added.

Relations between Russia and NATO were established in the early 1990s. In 1997, the two parties signed the Founding Act, which affirmed that they did not see each other as adversaries and set up a mechanism for consultation. The NATO-Russia Council was formed in 2002.

Until 2014, Russia and NATO cooperated on issues such as counterterrorism, drug trafficking, and piracy. However, following Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the alliance froze its cooperation with Moscow. Since 2019, dialogue within the NATO-Russia Council has effectively halted, and in 2021, Russia suspended its Permanent Mission to NATO in Brussels and closed its offices in Moscow.

Since 2014, NATO has significantly increased its military presence near Russia’s borders and expanded its military exercises. Following the onset of the special military operation in Ukraine, the alliance sharply built up troop levels on its eastern flank, broadened its military exercises, and provided substantial military aid to Ukraine.