Grushko will represent Moscow at Russia-NATO Council meeting

MOSCOW (TASS): Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Grushko told TASS that he will represent the Russian diplomatic service at the upcoming meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12 in Brussels.
“The delegation consists of representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the military. I will head the Foreign Ministry unit,” he said on Tuesday, answering a relevant question.
According to Grushko, NATO, having announced its intention to hold an emergency videoconference of foreign ministers on the eve of the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, is trying to raise tensions around the internal Ukrainian conflict.
“We expect such steps from the alliance. Usually the NRC (the Russia-NATO Council – TASS note) was always preceded by either a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission or a meeting of the North Atlantic Council. These are some signals that NATO sends us that they are concerned about alleged concentration of Russian forces,” he said.
“This all fits into their line aimed at increasing tensions around the internal Ukrainian crisis, the line of positioning Russia as a party to the conflict. There is nothing surprising here.”
Earlier, the alliance re-ported that NATO foreign ministers would hold an e-mergency videoconference on January 7 to discuss R-ussia’s demands on Euro-pean security.
The meeting of the Russia-NATO Cou-ncil will take place on Ja-nuary 12 in Brussels.
The RNC last convened in the summer of 2019 without any practical results.
On January 12-13, Brussels will also host a meeting of the NATO Military Committee at the level of chiefs of general staff. Grushko from 2012 to 2018 was the Perm-anent Representative of Ru-ssia to NATO in Brussels.
Also, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell discussed with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg the preparations for the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on 12 January. This is stated in a statement released on Tuesday by the EU’s foreign policy service.
“They discussed the preparations for a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12.
The High Representative stressed that any discussion on security in Europe should be conducted on the basis of strengthening OSCE and United Nations commitments,” the document says.