Head of Russian General Staff and Commander of NATO Forces to Hold Regular Meeting in Baku

Baku / 08.01.18 / Turan: A meeting of Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of NATO in Europe, Curtis Scaparotti, is scheduled for the end of January in Baku. This was reported by the publication BuzzFeed with reference to US and European sources.

The NATO representative refused to confirm or deny the upcoming meeting in Azerbaijan, saying that "any future interaction will be announced over time." The interlocutor noted that Scaparotti and Gerasimov were on the phone and demonstrated "an obvious mutual interest in maintaining military communications."

After the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, military contacts between Russia and NATO along the military line were frozen. Thus, under the predecessor of Scaparotti, at the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Joint European Armed Forces in Europe, Filip Breedlaw, who held this post from May 2013 to May 2016, there was never such a meeting. "I was forbidden to communicate," Breedlaw said in an interview with BuzzFeed.

Official comments from the Russian side have not yet come.

The resumption of contacts between Russia and NATO on the military line occurred in March 2017. Then Gerasimov had a telephone conversation with the head of the NATO military committee, Peter Paul. Later, on September 7, they met in Baku. -02D-