Brussels, Jan 18 (CTK) – Petr Pavel of the Czech Republic, head of the NATO Military Committee, will try to establish a meaningful military dialogue with Valery Gerasimov, Russian military chief of staff, he said after a meeting of the committee on the level of NATO military chiefs of staff on Wednesday.
The chiefs of staff supported Pavel’s effort.
Pavel has striven to open a meaningful military dialogue with Russia since he assumed the NATO post in June 2015.
“Since then, I have contacted my Russian partners here in Brussels minimally five times, last week being the latest attempt,” he said.
However, his effort to at least open the initial discussion with Gerasimov and prepare ground and rules for a fully-fledged military dialogue has not been successful.
The two sides have even failed to reach agreement on that the decreasing of risks and increasing of transparency in military issues should be the fundamental themes of the debate, Pavel said.
“Unlike the Russian military, we cannot imagine waging an expert discussion without first reaching agreement on the agenda on the top military level,” Pavel said.
He said the opposite way would lead to NATO experts being only able to talk in Moscow and elsewhere about very general themes.
“We must establish contact, a fundamental rate of trust, to set out the agenda, and only then can we clearly tell our experts what they should discuss. This offer has been on the table and we have been waiting for Moscow’s reaction,” Pavel said.
After Russia annexed Crimea, NATO interrupted all practical cooperation with Russia and it has reinforced its defence capabilities in eastern Europe the most since the end of the Cold War.
NATO believes that communication on the military level would help avert possible tragic misunderstandings and allow a fast solution to incidents.
NATO has long been complaining of the behaviour of Russian military pilots over the Baltic and Blacks seas, for instance.
