NATO General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has called on the Russians to meet at a new session of the NATO-Russia Council, to discuss the present situation, which he said is at “the lowest point since the end of the Cold War.” The Council has not convened for 19 months. Stoltenberg said dialogue was needed urgently to “prevent incidents at military exercises.”
Whereas Stoltenberg’s call is hypocritical because it covers up that NATO has consistently expanded its own schedule of military exercises and thereby added to the escalation, a meeting of the Council could be of value, in the context of the Biden-Putin dialogue.
In response to Stoltenberg’s statement that Moscow had not responded to a proposal on holding a meeting, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel June 7 that Russia is ready to discuss issues of de-escalation and preventing incidents with the North Atlantic Alliance, but without engaging military experts this dialogue makes no sense. “Russia is not avoiding dialogue with NATO and is ready for a real discussion on the issues of de-escalation and preventing incidents. But without engaging military experts the talks on these issues would actually make no sense. Mr. Stoltenberg is well aware of this,” Zakharova said.
Commenting on Stoltenberg’s remark that the ball was in Moscow’s court, Zakharova countered: “Speaking about balls. Mr. Stoltenberg, please return your goalposts to the playing field, we will score.”
