NATO Military Committee: Officials to set stage for expert talks with Russia

The agenda and the rules of the talks between NATO and Russian military experts on prevention of dangerous incidents should be determined by top military officials first, Petr Pavel, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said Wednesday, Sputnik reports.

"I contacted Russian counterparts here in Brussels at least five times. The last one was last week, where I offered again… to start with [chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff] Gen. [Valery] Gerasimov at least the initial stage… of the conversation… I also stressed the view that is different from the Russian military that we cannot start expert-level discussion without first setting the scope for the agenda at the top military level," Pavel said at a press briefing, when asked about the progress made on setting up a meeting on dangerous military incidents between experts from Russia and NATO.

The Military Committee chairman said that the contact and "basic trust" between the two sides had to be reestablished and the agenda for the meeting had to be determined before the experts could begin to communicate.

Pavel also emphasized the importance of setting "clear rules" for the talks between the experts and of the focus on risk reduction and transparency.