Russia is ready for a serious dialogue with NATO, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, noting that the Alliance, in turn, is not ready to restore normal military ties with the Russian Federation.
According to him, the Russian side has never ignored the Russia-NATO format. "We proceed from the fact that the Russia–NATO Council meetings should bring us closer to solving problems, in which both sides are interested. Thus, measures to prevent dangerous incidents, steps towards de-escalating, preventing each other’s misinterpretation of intentions, are of particular importance," the diplomat told the reporters.
Grushko stressed that the Russian Federation is not just ready for a serious dialogue with the Alliance, Russia has formulated concrete proposals that, if implemented, could improve the military situation in Europe. "But, unfortunately, NATO does not agree to discuss our ideas and does not seek normal working military contacts, RIA Novosti reports.
The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that there are very few topics for a constructive dialogue between Russia and NATO. "In my opinion, we could discuss the prevention of military incidents. And it would not be a dialogue with NATO in general, but with individual countries of the Alliance, in particular, about coordination with the U.S. and France on Syria. On other issues, unfortunately, there are no prospects for agreements," he said, adding that the entire previous treaty base in the military sphere is gradually collapsing due to the lack of effective communication between the Russia-NATO format.
"NATO is increasing its presence at the Russian borders, the INF Treaty is threatened, and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is no longer relevant. By the way, the termination of the INF Treaty is one of the acceptable scenarios for Russia, because the medium-range and short-range missiles of the caliber mentioned in the treaty, both at sea and on land, would be a very useful defensive line for us - and in terms of our vulnerability, the situation would not change much, because the U.S. fleet is already close enough," Mikhail Remizov said.
