BRUSSELS, Dec 18: Nato and Russia will on Friday hold their first high-level talks in four months, after alliance foreign ministers ordered a thaw in tense relations with Moscow, officials said.

The “confidential” talks would involve Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Russia’s ambassador to the military alliance, Dmitry Rogozin, a Nato official said on Thursday.

“They are going to have an informal lunch tomorrow,” she said, but declined to go into details.

Nato foreign ministers agreed on Dec 3 “on a measured and phased approach” for resuming talks in the Nato-Russia Council (NRC), which meets at ambassadorial, ministerial and head of government levels.

Meetings of the council were put on ice in August due to Russia’s war in Georgia, but technical and working-level talks have continued.

“Since the beginning of crisis there have been contacts at working level,” the official underscored. “The relations have not been frozen.” Some European allies, led by France and Germany, are keen to resume contact with Russia, which is a major supplier of European natural gas and oil, but the United States does not want to reward Moscow for its actions in Georgia.

Under European pressure, the ministers gave Scheffer a mandate “to re-engage with Russia at the political level; agreed to informal discussions in the NRC”, with a full return to formal talks possible once he reports back.

Rogozin said Russia wanted all problematic issues to be put on the table, and that Moscow would decide later whether it wanted the NRC meetings to resume.

“I hope the secretary general will propose dates and themes for discussion and I will see with Moscow if this is convenient, and then we will take a decision,” he said.

“Everything has to be put on the table,” he said. “It’s up to Nato to correct its errors.” The war in Georgia brought tense Nato-Russia ties to a head. Russia has been angered by Nato’s open door policy in regard to former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine.

Alliance leaders decided in April that although they would join one day, a fast-track approach had been ruled out for the time being.—AFP