Russian Defense confident relations with NATO will be restored

MOSCOW - 14 September 2017: Russia will restore the former format of relations with NATO, including within the Russia-NATO Council, in a couple of years, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said.

He wouldn't want that cooperation between Russia and NATO to remain prehistoric assuring that Russia will restore the relationship with NATO, returning to the wonderful form of cooperation that is the Russia-NATO Council, the Russian news agency TASS reported Thursday

"I think that it will happen in the next year or two at most", he added.

As for the Russia-Belarus joint military exercise Zapad-2017 (West-2017) that are to kick off on Thursday, they are of purely defense nature, he stressed

"I can calm our dear neighbors straightaway. The exercise is absolutely peaceful, and absolutely defensive in nature," Fomin said.

Fomin noted "There are no plans for any sort of invasion into the territory of neighboring countries. The main goal of the exercise is to practice relevant strategies for the battle against terrorism and to practice the use of the armed forces for that battle."