18 December 2016, 01:07 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — NATO is not seeking an escalation in relations with Russia, it does not want new Cold War, the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting on Monday.
"This is the signal for the NATO-Russia Council on Monday: NATO does not want any escalation, it does not want a Cold War," Stoltenberg told German Bild newspaper in an interview.
The next NRC meeting will take place on the level of ambassadors to the Alliance in Brussels.
The first NRC meeting since NATO-Russian relations deterioration over Ukraine crises took place on April 20 at the level of permanent envoys, but failed to yield any significant results, as the sides disagreed on a number of geopolitical issues. Another NRC meeting, at the ambassadorial level, was held in Brussels on July 13.
