Steinmeier: NATO-Russia Council meeting is aimed at resuming dialogue with Moscow
The German Foreign Minister hopes that the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will help to clarify the decisions made in Warsaw and resume a dialogue with Russia
In the run-up to the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council to be held on 13 July, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, stated that it is important to clarify with Moscow all decisions made at the Summit in Warsaw and resume a dialogue.
“This is a chance to clarify all the decisions made in Warsaw and then restore a meaningful and constructive dialogue with Russia, in particular, on the difficult issues of the peace settlement and European security architecture,” the Minister said in an interview with DPA on Sunday, July 10th.
According to him, the Summit in Warsaw managed to “send the right message.” Frank-Walter Steinmeier explained that all NATO members initially adhered to the position which consisted of the “reassurance of our Eastern partners and readiness for defense, but only with dialogue and a true willingness to communicate.”
Moscow, in turn, expects that full explanations of the decisions made at the summit will be provided during the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, as Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated on the same day.
The meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will take place four days after the NATO Summit. The work of the Council was frozen in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the beginning of Moscow's support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine. The first meeting was held in Brussels on 20 April 2016. "NATO and Russia are separated by deep contradictions," the NATO Secretary-General said after the meeting.