Russia and NATO are planning to resume joint theater missile defense drills in early 2012, the new head of the NATO Information Office in Moscow said on Friday.
The drills were halted in August 2008 after NATO condemned Russia for its role in a five-day war with Georgia.
“The alliance and Russia have decided to return to cooperation which has a good history, including theater missile defense [cooperation],” Robert Pszczel said during an online conference organized by RIA Novosti.
“We have good horizons here. Probably, we will hold special drills in this sphere starting early next year,” he said.
NATO officially invited Moscow to resume the exercises during a NATO-Russia Council summit in November 2010. At the meeting, the sides also reached a ground-breaking agreement to cooperate on the construction of a European missile defense system, a previous sticking point in relations.
Within a few months, Russia and NATO are also planning to hold military exercises, entitled Bold Monarch, in the Mediterranean Sea, during which the parties will train rescue skills, Pszczel said.
