NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is ready to organize a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on 12 January, a NATO official told the DPA News agency.
The alliance is now in contact with Russia, the official said on Saturday. Moscow has not announced any set dates yet.
On Friday, Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, said that Russia is ready for dialogue with NATO and has received a proposal to convene a Russia-NATO Council meeting.
According to Zakharova, NATO’s non-expansion and non-deployment of weapons posing threat to Russia’s security near its borders will be the issues of utmost importance for Moscow at the upcoming talks on security guarantees with the United States.
Earlier this month, Russia released its draft proposals on security guarantees. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow expects to receive specific responses to its proposals from the United States in January.
Commenting on the timeframe for NATO-Russia talks on security guarantees, Peskov said that there are no exact dates yet.
