First Russia-NATO Council Since June 2014 Kicks Off in Brussels

© REUTERS / Francois LenoirFlags fly at half mast at NATO headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2016.
Flags fly at half mast at NATO headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2016. - Sputnik International
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The first Russia-NATO Council meeting since June 2014 kicked off in Brussels on Wednesday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will meet for the first time on Wednesday since the western military alliance cut off ties with Moscow in April 2014.

Flags fly at half mast at NATO headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Kremlin: Moscow Ready for Russia-NATO Dialogue, Satisfied Over Continuation
The date for the two-hour ambassadorial-level meeting in Brussels has only been confirmed on April 12, according to a NATO official who spoke with Sputnik last week.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, responding to queries on the Russia-NATO Council meeting agenda on Tuesday, expressed hope that the meeting would "become a venue for a truly honest, equal and fundamental discussion of vital security issues."

"We intend to express our concern over the bloc’s open policy of military and political deterrence of Russia and the continued eastward movement of its military infrastructure, which we see as contradicting the spirit of the 1997 Russia-NATO Founding Act," Zakharova stressed.

A general view of the table for a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 - Sputnik International
NATO’s Freezing of Relations With Russia Not Paid Off
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on April 8 the council agenda would include the "crisis in and around Ukraine, military activity, transparency, risk reductions and Afghanistan."

On Ukraine, Zakharova said that Moscow planned to raise issues with NATO’s assistance to the anti-constitutional coup in Kiev in February 2014 and the use of NATO instructors to train Ukrainian security forces in waging war against their own people, among other pressing subjects.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov summarized Tuesday the meeting’s program as no longer "business as usual" and a "one-way street."

"The agenda which was agreed upon for tomorrow’s session does not only reflect what NATO needs but also what Russia is interested in," Lavrov said late Tuesday.

Stoltenberg echoed the top Russian diplomat’s sentiment that convening the Russia-NATO Council "does not mean that we are back to business as normal."

A general view of the table for a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 - Sputnik International
World
Moscow Will Not Allow NATO to Drag Russia Into Senseless Confrontation
The NATO-Russia Council was created in 2002 as a mechanism for consultations and cooperation between NATO member states and Russia on a wide range of security issues.

The format was suspended in 2014 amid stained relations over the Ukrainian crisis, as the alliance accused Moscow of the involvement in the conflict.

Russia has repeatedly dismissed the allegations of meddling in Ukrainian affairs and stressed that NATO's military expansion and increased presence near Russian borders undermines regional security.

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