The Kremlin on Friday rejected the possibility of rejoining the NATO-Russia Council, following reports that the United States—under President Donald Trump—is considering reviving the forum as part of a broader diplomatic initiative to end the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there is no basis for dialogue with NATO at this time, citing continued Western military support for Ukraine.
“It is difficult to talk about resuming any kind of dialogue with NATO when it is effectively at war with the Russian Federation,” Peskov said. He also noted that Russia had not received any formal invitation to rejoin the council.
The NATO-Russia Council was originally established during the 2002 NATO Summit in Rome to facilitate cooperation and dialogue between the alliance and Moscow amid NATO’s ongoing eastward expansion. As part of this framework, Russia allowed the U.S. to use bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan during the early years of the war in Afghanistan.
However, relations steadily deteriorated over the following two decades—first with the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, then with the brief 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, and later over NATO’s 2011 bombing of Libya and the civil war in Syria. Tensions reached a critical point in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea in the wake of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s ousting. NATO formally suspended all military and political cooperation with Russia that same month, effectively rendering the council inactive.
Any remaining dialogue between NATO and Moscow was ultimately severed in February 2022 when Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine, ending sporadic discussions that had continued over the preceding civil conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Still, Peskov suggested on Friday that dialogue between Russia and NATO may eventually be necessary. He referenced a draft proposal submitted by President Vladimir Putin to the United States in December 2021, which called for a complete reworking of Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture—one that Russia argues has consistently ignored its strategic concerns.
Any renewed talks on European security, however, are unlikely to proceed until the war in Ukraine comes to an end.