"We have agreed that an informal meeting of the Russia-NATO Council will take place in the middle of January, at ambassadorial level," Dmitry Rogozin said after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Rogozin also said Russia and NATO were moving toward "a normalization in bilateral relations."
NATO foreign ministers agreed on December 2 at a meeting in Brussels to gradually restore contacts with Moscow, suspended after Russia's armed conflict with Georgia in August.
NATO called Russia's military response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia "disproportionate" and condemned Moscow's decision in late August to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway province, as independent states.
In response to NATO's decision to halt cooperation, Russia froze a number of programs, including the Partnership for Peace program, cooperation with NATO's Moscow office and called off the NATO chief's visit to Moscow. Russia also canceled all joint-NATO naval training, including NATO visits to Russian ports.
Russia did not, however, suspend its work with NATO regarding arms control, cooperation in airspace, and the war in Afghanistan.
