Germany urges resumption of dialogue with Moscow via NATO-Russia Council

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday he would welcome a resumption of NATO dialogue with Moscow through a council that has not met for two years, but that "the ball is in Moscow's court".

The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was created in 2002 to facilitate consultation between the Western military alliance and Moscow, but relations are strained and the council last met in July 2019.

"We believe that we must keep up dialogue. But the ball is in Moscow's court," Maas said in Brussels on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO member states.


He did not spell out what steps he believed Russia should take to improve dialogue but said the NRC offers the opportunity for an intensive and trusting exchange on security policy matters.

"We are prepared for this, and we hope that there will be readiness on the Russian side too in the foreseeable future," Maas said.

NATO's Russia policy follows a two-track approach of deterrence and dialogue, though the alliance suspended all practical cooperation with Moscow in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The NRC was revived in 2016 and met regularly until 2019. But ties between Russia and the West are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues ranging from the annexation of Crimea to allegations of hacking U.S. elections and the conflict in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged on Tuesday to rebuild and revitalise NATO after four years when Washington portrayed the alliance as outdated, divided and in crisis.

The first top U.S. official to visit NATO since President Joe Biden took office in January, Blinken described what he said were Russian attempts to destabilise the West and China's military rise as threats that required NATO to come together.