The preparation for the first after the conflict in Georgia meeting of the foreign minister of Russia and NATO will be the central issue at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on Friday at the ambassadors’ level. The meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and countries of the North Atlantic Alliance is to take place in Korfu (Greece) on June 27 simultaneously with the OSCE ministerial meeting.

Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Itar-Tass that the Russia-NATO ministerial meeting “will make it possible to re-launch the full format political dialogue that was interrupted on the NATO initiative after the Russian response to Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia.” The restoration of the political dialogue will also “open the way for the resumption of military cooperation, including interaction on Afghanistan, resumption of Russia’s participation in the NATO antiterrorist operation in the Mediterranean “Active Endeavour,” as well as cooperation in the fight against pirates near the Somalia coast.”

The NATO-Russian Council meeting will also continue the discussion of the initiatives on the improvement of the principles and mechanisms of the work of this body. According to Rogozin, the aim of these initiatives is to ensure uninterrupted work of the NATO-Russia Council and prevent the recurrence of the situation of last August when “in the conditions of the serious crisis the work of the Council was blocked.”

The work of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of ambassadors was resumed on April 29 – almost 9 months after NATO under the tough pressure of the United States froze the work of this body as a result of the conflict in South Ossetia. It was earlier planned to hold the ministerial meeting on May 19, however, political difficulties, including the Georgian war games and a scandal with the expulsion by NATO of 2 Russian diplomats, as well as technical difficulties impeded this, because this ministerial meeting did not coincide with the working schedule of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.