NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed the convening of the Council of Russia-NATO in January 2022. He wrote this on Twitter, writes UNN.
"Had a conversation with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss about the ongoing unprovoked and unexplained build-up of forces in and around Ukraine. NATO's actions are defensive and proportionate, and we remain open to dialogue. I convened a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in January," the Secretary General wrote.
At the end of the talks, Liz Truss said NATO strongly supports Ukraine and that any invasion would come at a "great price" for Russia.
"Any dialogue must fully respect Ukraine's sovereignty," she stressed.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had received an offer from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to hold talks on security in Europe in the format of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12.
However, according to him, Moscow will negotiate in this format only with the participation of high-level military officials from Russia and key members of this military bloc. There is a technical possibility for this - a meeting of the chiefs of general staff of the bloc's member states is due to take place in Brussels on 12 January.
As a reminder, the Ukrainian authorities and Western partners have recently drawn attention to Russia's aggravation of the security situation in Donbas, the build-up of Russian forces along the border with Ukraine, the danger of a new Russian invasion, and the intensification of Russian disinformation.
Putin's main demand is for guarantees from the United States and its allies that NATO will not expand further east and deploy weapons systems that Russia considers a threat there.
Against this backdrop, Russian and U.S. presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden held bilateral talks via video link on Dec. 7 that lasted two hours.
On December 15, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenber reiterated to Russia: Ukraine and Georgia have the right to choose their own alliances, and "spheres of influence" are history.
On December 17, Russia sent the U.S. and NATO proposals on security in Eastern Europe, which it believes are necessary to ease tensions around Ukraine.
Moscow's demands include a ban on Ukraine joining NATO, the Kremlin's veto of NATO military deployments in former Soviet republics, and an end to military exercises near its borders.
