15 February 2016, 11:31 GMT
BERLIN (Sputnik) — Martin Schaefe said no political agreement of the kind that was reached last July on Iran's nuclear program with Russian help would have been possible during the Cold War era.
"Despite a conflict of interests in Syria, Ukraine and other places, there is a promise that cooperation can go another way, for instance, like it was with the agreement on Iran," he told reporters.
"We have a dialogue with Russia, we want to continue it. There is no alternative to a dialogue with Russia, including due to an intense and complicated conflict of interests," Schaefer continued.
The spokesman added that the current dialogue could help Russia and the West return to the format of the NATO-Russia Council.
This comes after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned Saturday that Moscow and the West were on the brink of a cold war, in a reference to NATO’s military buildup on Europe’s eastern border.
