NATO-Russia Council may not meet before alliance summit

BRUSSELS – NATO’s chief said Wednesday the alliance may not get its wish of meeting with Russian government representatives before NATO’s July 8-9 summit in Warsaw.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that the alliance wants the meeting “to prevent misunderstandings, miscalculations and try to reduce tensions” with Moscow.

In April, NATO foreign ministers agreed to seek a pre-summit convening of the NATO-Russia Council, where the Kremlin is represented by an ambassador and other officials.

But Stoltenberg said, “I am not certain whether that is possible … but hopefully we will be able to have it shortly after the summit.”

He declined to explain why the meeting may happen later than NATO had hoped.

“We are now in dialogue with Russia on the agenda, on the modalities,” Stoltenberg said.

In an email, officials at the Russian Mission to NATO on Wednesday confirmed that “working contacts are taking place between the mission and NATO on the modalities of the NRC meeting, including on the date,” but said they could not comment further.

The NATO-Russia Council, created in 2002 when relations between the former Cold War foes were much more cordial, met for the first time in nearly two years in April.

That session failed to bridge differences between Russia and the U.S.-led alliance that have led to a sharp downturn in relations since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

In April, NATO’s foreign ministers agreed to pursue a “dual track approach” toward Moscow: to keep reinforcing alliance defences against what they view as a mounting Russian military threat, but also maintain channels of communication open with the Kremlin.

Stoltenberg said at the time the ministers agreed “we need a platform (like) the NATO-Russia Council to pursue transparency, predictability and to work for enhancing mechanisms for risk reduction to avoid dangerous situations, situations which can spiral out of control.”