HAMBURG (Sputnik) — The NATO-Russia Council was created in 2002 as a consultative mechanism. NATO keeps channels of political dialogue and military communication open despite the deterioration of relations with Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.
The first NRC meeting since the bilateral relations' deterioration at the level of permanent envoys, took place on April 20, but failed to yield any significant results due to the sides’ disagreement on a number of geopolitical issues. One more meeting of the Council at the ambassadorial level was held in the Belgian capital of Brussels on July 13.
"We need a concrete military and security policy dialogue inside NATO-Russia Council not only at the level of the ambassadors… The next step is also to renew the military-to-military dialogue," Erler said on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg, Germany.
He mentioned frequent flights of the Russian aircraft in the Kaliningrad exclave and close to the Baltic Sea.
"Every day the accident is possible. We have seen what it means on November 24 last year… It was a catastrophe in relations between the two countries, and imagine what could happen after the accident…. in the Baltic Sea?!" Erler stressed.
