Meeting with Russia’s Lavrov was ‘useful’ – NATO chief to RT

NATO Secretary-General Yens Stoltenberg has met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The meeting proved to be “useful,” Stoltenberg told RT after the talks, as the two officials discussed outstanding “disagreement” between Russia and the bloc. “I think it is important that we have direct dialogue [between] Russia and NATO,” Stoltenberg said. “I also welcome the fact that after two years with no meetings in the NATO-Russia Council we’ve been able to again convene meetings in the NATO-Russia Council and that is a good platform to discuss … relationship.” Asked about the recently mulled plans for a permanent US military base in Poland, Stoltenberg said the issue was not discussed during the meeting, and the alliance has “no proposal on the table” about such installation. NATO chief insisted that there was “no reason to speculate” if the facility would violate agreements between Russia and the alliance on the rotational principle of NATO troops deployment to the Eastern Europe. Russian Foreign Ministry said stated that the two officials discussed “the current state of the political dialogue and the prospects of Russia-NATO relations.”