Following the Crimea referendum, which saw an absolute majority of citizens vote in favor of reuniting with Russia, NATO suspended all cooperation with Moscow, condemning the events in Crimea as “military intervention”.
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Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance secretary-general, on Friday said the NATO-Russia Council will meet within the next two weeks in Brussels.
If it goes ahead as part of an exchange, it would be the first prisoner swap between Kiev and Moscow since relations soured following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent pro-Kremlin insurgency in east Ukraine. They will also focus on military transparency and risk reduction, and the security situation in Afghanistan, including regional terrorist threats. “At the same time, there will be no return to business as usual until Russian Federation again respects global law”, the statement said.
“The NATO-Russia Council will discuss the crisis in and around Ukraine and the need to fully implement the Minsk agreements”, NATO said in a statement. “We are counting on a dialogue with Russia”, Stoltenberg claimed. The official, who asked not to be named, said Stoltenberg had discussed the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when they met in Munich in February. It did not give a date for the meeting.
Since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, NATO’s maneuvers in eastern Europe have been heavily criticised by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Within the NRC, NATO member states and Russian Federation are considered equals, and all decisions are taken on a consensus basis. In September, Russia launched a massive military campaign to support long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad, enabling him to win back swathes of territory from IS and rebel groups. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said high-level political contacts with Russia could continue but North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Russian ambassadors met only twice since the Crimea crisis erupted, in March 2014 and then in early June of the same year.
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The NATO-Russia Council, established at the NATO-Russia Summit in Rome on May 28, 2002, is a forum for consultation between NATO and Russia.
