According to a report by APA MPA, the NATO-Russia Council may meet in January for the first time in two and a half years, diplomatic sources said yesterday Saturday 25/12, even though Moscow has not yet confirmed such information.

An official from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization confirmed that its Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, had decided to convene the council on January 12 and that the alliance was in contact with Moscow on the matter.

From its side, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it had received the proposal, but added that it was still being studied, with the order and date of the talks pending finalization. “However, we are open to dialogue,” stressed the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

This development follows the teleconference on 7/12 between United States President Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the fragile situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border. The concentration of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine is causing “concern” in the West and fuels Kiev’s fear of an impending military ground invasion.

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Russia denies such plans and claims it can deploy troops on its territory as it sees fit. For its part, it argues that it is its own security that is threatened by the reinforcement of NATO troops near its borders and demands “security guarantees” from Western countries, including the categorical guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO and the alliance will not expand to the east.

The Agency rejects this request; however, Mr Stoltenberg has repeatedly stated his intention to discuss all issues on which there are differences during the NATO-Russia Council. The NATO-Russia Council last met in July 2019. Since then, all attempts to set a date for new talks have proved fruitless.

One of the reasons is that Russia does not want to discuss the armed conflict in Ukraine within the council framework, a term that NATO member-states in Eastern Europe in particular strongly reject.

Finally, according to Interfax, more than 10,000 Russian soldiers have begun to return to their permanent bases after a month of training in Crimea and in areas near Ukraine. Estimates regarding the number of Russian troops recently transferred to Ukraine range from 60,000 to 90,000, with a US intelligence document mentioning that the number could rise to 175,000.

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