New Russian National Security Strategy does not consider NATO as threat — foreign ministry

BERLIN, January 19. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Alliance and Russia should have more possibilities for holding talks, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.

"We need a greater number of channels for negotiations to avoid misunderstanding," the minister said speaking on a possible resumption of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meetings.

Steinmeier earlier told German mass media that the Council could resume the work at the level of ambassadors.

"At the recent NATO Council I said the NATO-Russia Council should not be considered as a gift for Russia, it should be perceived as a tool used for communicating and avoiding misunderstanding," he said.

In April 2014, the alliance halted all practical cooperation between NATO and Russia including in the NRC amid the Ukrainian conflict and Crimea’s reunification with Russia.

The NATO-Russia Council (NRC), established at the NATO-Russia summit in Rome in May 2002, was conceived a tool for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation, joint decision and joint action. Under the NRC, 28 NATO member states and Russia have worked as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security issues of common interest.