NATO and Russia enter into dialogue amid tensions over Ukraine

Senior Russian and NATO officials meet to try to bridge seemingly irreconcilable differences over the future of Ukraine, amid widespread skepticism that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s security proposals to reduce tensions are genuine.

The talks were part of a week of high-level diplomatic contacts and of a US-led effort to prevent preparations for what Washington believes could be a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although Moscow denies planning an attack, its history of military interventions in Ukraine and Georgia worries NATO.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin posed grimly to the media ahead of their NATO-Russia Council. There was no public handshake, although the Russian delegation did bump fists with officials from the 30 NATO member states at the meeting venue.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, lled the US team at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

This was the first meeting of this kind held in two years, and it was expected to last about three hours.. The NATO-Russia Council, the main forum for talks, was formed two decades ago, though full meetings were interrupted when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. Since then, only sporadic meetings have taken place, the last time in July 2019.

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