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NATO will still seek channels with Russia despite spy dispute

21 October 2021 05:51 (UTC +04:00)

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the alliance would still need to talk to Russia after Moscow suspended its diplomatic mission to the alliance over an espionage dispute, APA reports quoting Reuters.

That means relying on a hotline between Russia's chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and Tod Wolters, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as well as Stoltenberg's meetings with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, officials and diplomats said.

Russia has also left open the possibility of diplomacy through its embassy in Belgium, although formal meetings in the NATO-Russia Council format are now frozen.

"The relationship between NATO and Russia is now at the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. For us, that's actually not an argument against dialogue," Stoltenberg told a news conference.