The new NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the North Atlantic Alliance is ready to consider a request for a meeting of the NATO - Russia Council in the case of receipt of such request. It was reported by Reuters. “If such a request is sent to us, then we will consider it” – Stoltenberg said, noting that two meetings of the Russia – NATO Council have been held since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine.

      Earlier the Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Aleksei Meshkov stated that Moscow did not exclude consideration of the question of convening NATO - Russia Council. The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg became the new Secretary General of NATO in early September 2014. He started to execute his duties on October 1. Stoltenberg took over as a head of NATO after the Dane Anders Fogh Rasmussen who was the Secretary General of the Alliance since 2009.