NATO chief to meet with Lavrov at Munich Security Conference – official

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference, an alliance official told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. Stoltenberg keeps in close contact with Lavrov, TASS quoted the official as saying. The last meeting was held in New York in September, and the next meeting “is scheduled to be held at the Munich Security Conference,” the official said. The alliance adheres in its dialogue with Moscow “to the NATO-Russia Council format and maintaining contacts in this format and at a higher level, including direct contacts between military chiefs, in order to provide transparency and avoid misrepresentation of military activity,” according to the statement.