BRUSSELS -- NATO has announced it will hold a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the ambassadorial level at NATO headquarters in Brussels in the next two weeks.
In a statement on April 8, the Western military alliance said the NATO-Russia Council will discuss "the crisis in and around Ukraine and the need to fully implement the Minsk agreements."
"We will discuss military activities, with particular focus on transparency and risk reduction," it said, adding that Afghanistan and regional threats were also on the agenda.
NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia in April 2014 due to Russia's action in Ukraine, including the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Since then the NATO-Russia Council has only met once, in June 2014. Despite the strained ties, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a few times in recent years.