(CNN) –– NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the meeting between the organization and Russia on the situation in Ukraine “was not an easy discussion.” Also that “the differences will not be easy to overcome.” But, he also stressed that NATO allies and Russia “expressed the need to resume the dialogue.”
“This was not an easy discussion. But that is exactly why this meeting was so important,” he told reporters in Brussels.
“We had a very serious and direct exchange on the situation in and around Ukraine, and the implications for European security. There are significant differences between NATO allies and Russia on these issues. Our differences will not be easy to overcome, but it is A positive sign that all NATO allies and Russia have sat around the same table and engaged on substantial issues. “
Representatives of Russia and NATO met in Brussels on Wednesday to hold high-level conversations that seek to appease the growing tensions over the military build-up Moscow near the border with Ukraine.
The dialogue lasted about four hours, about an hour longer than expected, a source with knowledge of the conversations told CNN.
The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting occurs just as the two sides are at a standstill. While also increasing fears that Russia may launch an invasion of Ukraine.
Although Moscow has dismissed such accusations, Russia already has 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine. And, on the eve of the talks, the military began live-fire training exercises in regions near the border.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, center, arrive at the NATO-Russia Council at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, January 12. of 2022.
The United States, NATO and their allies are pressing Russia to ease the tensions of the situation. For its part, Moscow has demanded security guarantees from the US and NATO. Among them, a binding promise that NATO will not expand further east and will not allow Ukraine to join the military alliance. Something that the organization is not willing to do.
“At this point, let me be very, very clear: no one is suggesting that we alter NATO’s policy on enlargement,” US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told CNN on Tuesday.
The meeting between Russia and NATO
Rather than being viewed as a bilateral meeting between NATO and Russia, Wednesday’s meeting had each of the 30 NATO member states and Russia represented equally, in a forum of 31. The meeting is the second of three key engagements between the West and Russia this week.
On Monday, representatives of the US and Russia sat in Geneva for more than seven hours of debate.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin left with Grushko in the center and Stoltenberg on the right before talks began Wednesday.
The marathon talks, which the White House described as “frank and direct,” produced no breakthrough. Another round of talks between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which the United States is a member, is scheduled for Thursday in Vienna.
Ukraine said Tuesday that it was confident that the United States and other NATO countries would not make a decision “about the fate” of the country “behind our backs” during the meetings.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi, Jennifer Hansler, Luke McGee, Katharina Krebs, Nikki Carvajal and Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.