Russia-NATO dialogue must be equal - Kosachyov
MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Russia is ready for dialogue with western entities, including NATO, provided it is held on equal terms, said Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs.
"According to media reports, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allegedly stated that the time has come to contemplate the possibility of a NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting. He suggested discussing it with the Russian delegation to NATO and then making a final decision about the date of the meeting. It's high time," Kosachyov told Interfax on Thursday, commenting on the NATO chief's proposal.
He stressed that he was "somewhat surprised by how this news is being presented: as if western counties struggled to find any possibility of dialogue with such a difficult partner as Russia."
"The only problem is that all communication was cut off precisely by the Western side. Russia never stopped shouting from every loudspeaker that it was ready for dialogue. And it was ready for it at every stage of the Ukrainian, Syrian and all other crises. But it kept bumping against the undiplomatic 'we'll-sort-it-out-without-you' attitude. We can see how they 'sorted' it," Kosachyov said.
Having got carried away by sanctions and isolations, NATO and other entities, including PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] failed to notice that "they had long been holding fervent monologues instead of dialogue," the senator said. But it does not help solve pressing international problems, he said.
"This is why the key question [that the leaders of both houses also put to the PACE leaders] is: are our vis-a-vis ready for a proper and equal dialogue, or is it that they lack an audience for airing their unilateral complaints? We are ready for the former, here and now, so to speak. As for the second option, we'd rather wait," Kosachyov said.