NATO, Russia Consider Council Meeting

NATO is looking into the possibility of holding a NATO-Russia Council meeting, according to a source at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — NATO is considering holding a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council and this issue is being discussed with the Russian side, a source at the alliance's Brussels headquarters said Friday.

"We are looking into the possibility of holding a NATO-Russia Council meeting and we are discussing this with our Russian counterparts. The Allies have not taken a final decision yet, so it is too early to speak about a possible date," the source told RIA Novosti.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this week that it was time to look into the possibility of holding an NRC meeting. The Alliance plans to discuss this with the Russian delegation to the bloc.

Andrei Kelin, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation, said Thursday Moscow was looking into the proposal.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said earlier on Friday there were no joint events between Russia and NATO. Antonov said that some high-ranking delegations from Europe had arrived to Moscow to discuss renewing military contacts.

The NRC was established at the NATO-Russia Summit in Rome in 2002 as a forum for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation, joint decision and joint action.