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Biden-Putin meeting a chance for NATO to re-establish military-to-military communication

Across Europe, security experts and former military and diplomatic officers are warning that tensions between Russia and NATO countries are at a post-Cold War high and the risks of escalation — possibly by accident or misunderstanding — are rising.

President Biden should signal to the Allies that the U.S. will not stand in the way if they allow their soldiers to talk to their Russian counterparts.

Military experience proves that hazardous incidents occur at the moments when channels of communication or plans for crisis control are at their weakest. Modern technologies, an increase in tempo and the possibility of deliberate obscuration all multiply risk. So does the possibility that a third party — perhaps a non-state actor — could use disinformation or hoaxing to start a confrontation between Russia and a Western country.

NATO and Russia have a mutual interest in ensuring that there are sufficient military-to-military contacts to manage and reduce the risks. Dialogue has largely ended since the 2014 invasion of Crimea and NATO’s policy of “no business as usual.” But NATO’s position on Ukraine and objections to wider Russian behavior should not prevent purposeful contacts to avoid military clashes. Quite the opposite: Managing these risks is even more essential at a time when deep political tensions are likely to remain.

Pragmatic ways ahead

Our organization, the European Leadership Network, has convened multiple meetings of senior former military leaders and diplomats from across Europe, the U.S. and Russia to discuss pragmatic ways forward.

With them, we have concluded that to formulate a practical, viable path to risk reduction dialogue, officials should build on what already exists and what works. Practical, concrete measures are the most likely to make progress:

Priority areas for dialogue

We propose five priority areas for enhanced NATO-Russia military-to-military dialogue:

Sir Adam Thomson, former United Kingdom ambassador to NATO, is now director of the European Leadership Network, a not-for-profit network of leaders working for a safer Europe.

Sir Graham Stacey, former chief of staff of NATO Transformation, is senior consulting fellow at the European Leadership Network.