NATO ambassadors are due to meet with their Russian counterparts on May 31 for talks on the conflict in Ukraine, reducing tensions over military maneuvers, and other issues.
Relations between Russia and the Western military alliance have soured since 2014 primarily due to Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The talks will be the first NATO-Russia Council meeting this year. The meeting is part of NATO's twin-track approach combining a strong defense posture with "meaningful dialogue" with Russia, an alliance official said.
Russia and the West have clashed in recent months regarding the war in Syria and the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain, among other matters.
Most recently, NATO demanded that Russia accept responsibility for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, an incident in which 298 civilians from various countries were killed.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that this week's dialogue with Russia could help to decrease friction and mitigate the risk of inadvertent military encounters.
NATO suspended practical cooperation with Moscow in 2014 in response to its aggression in Ukraine.
For two years, ambassadors and ministers did not meet until the NATO-Russia Council was revived in 2016.
The last meeting of the council was in October.
