Russia: ready to build relations with NATO

Russia is open for building relations with NATO but will take into account NATO’s readiness for equal partnership, the Russian foreign ministry said in a report summing up the 2016 foreign policy results that was posted on its official website on Tuesday.

"NATO’s leaders continued to realize the package of measures on expanding the alliance’s military presence and military infrastructure development in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Baltic states and in the Black Sea that was adopted at the alliance’s summit in Wales in 2014," the ministry said, according to TASS news agency. 

"The alliance’s Warsaw summit in July endorsed a long-term course towards strengthening of the bloc’s military component with an eye of preserving its dominating positions in the Euro-Atlantic region and confirmed its commitment to military political containment of our country," the ministry added. 

Nevertheless, after an almost two-year break, NATO initiated ambassadorial meetings of the Russia-NATO ?ouncil in April, July and December. The agenda of those meetings included "the crisis in Ukraine, issues of security in Afghanistan and risks stemming from NATO’s military buildup along Russia’s western borders," the ministry noted. "We consider the Russia-NATO Council as a useful mechanism for consultations between Russia and NATO on key security issues."

Source: MENA