BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- NATO foreign ministers have agreed to resume high-level ties with Russia which were cut off last year after Moscow's brief incursion into aspiring NATO-member Georgia.
"There is an agreed text. We are resuming the talks within the NATO-Russia Council as soon as possible after the [April NATO] summit," said Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.
Russia quickly welcomed the decision.
"This decision is a step in the right direction," Russia's RIA news agency quotes a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
The decision comes as NATO and its allies seek Russian cooperation in the battle against Afghan militants and other threats.