NATO believes talks resumption with Russia's military leadership doesn't contradict bloc's policy
NATO headquarters and the command of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe have said that the resumption of negotiations with the Russian military leadership is not contrary to the policy of the Alliance on the Russian Federation, the European Truth online publication said with reference to representatives of these structures.
The publication notes that the commanders did not refute, but did not confirm the information about the allegedly scheduled meeting in January between the commander of the United Armed Forces of NATO in Europe, Curtis Scaparrotti and the head of the Russian army's headquarters, Valery Gerasimov. "At the same time, they hinted that in general such a meeting is possible," about the future talks (between Skaparotti and Gerasimov) will be reported at the right time," the newspaper said.
NATO and Russia retain lines of communication between military departments, for greater predictability and transparency of military activities, the United Command explained.
They also recalled that Skaparrotti and Gerasimov had already talked on the phone on September 14, 2017.
This demonstrates the mutual interest in maintaining military lines of communication in accordance with NATO's policy of transparency and maintaining a political dialogue with the Russian leadership, the alliance said.
In turn, the NATO Headquarters press center noted that the Alliance did not change Russia's strategy. They referred to the recent statement of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on maintaining the approach agreed upon at the Warsaw Summit of the Alliance.
We have strengthened our collective security, but we remain open to dialogue. We maintain economic sanctions (against the Russian Federation), but we use military lines of communication, the Secretary General said in a statement.
Earlier, the U.S. publication BuzzFeed published information about the allegedly scheduled personal meeting of Skaparrotti and Gerasimov in January 2018, although the high military leaders of the Alliance have not communicated with representatives of the Russian Federation since 2014.
