( RIA Novosti ) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on December 7, a ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Mikhail Kamynin said Russia is ready to continue cooperation with the 26-member alliance, although Moscow believes the partnership is unlikely to be easy.
"The relationship between Russia and NATO has been successful as well as complicated. And what lies ahead will be far from simple," Kamynin said adding that this was expected as issues under discussion concerned key aspects of international security and strategic stability.
Among such issues Kamynin mentioned the international legal consequences of NATO's transformation, its expansion towards Russia's borders, the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and plans announced by the U.S. in January to deploy the components of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic to counter possible strike from "rogue" states, such as Iran and North Korea.
"But we are not ambitious in our initiatives - Russia needs such cooperation just as much as the alliance does," the diplomat said.