NATO and Russia will resume formal political contacts at the end of April with a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at ambassadorial level, said the alliance on Wednesday.

The Russians have indicated that they wish to restart formal relations at the NATO-Russia Council at the end of April and that there will be a meeting of foreign ministers during the last two weeks of May, NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

"If that's the way they wish to do it, then that is the way it will be done," he said.

NATO will also hold open invitation to Moscow for a chief of defense meeting scheduled for the beginning of May, he said.

NATO decided to suspend high-level contacts with Russia in August 2008 following the Russia-Georgia military conflict. NATO foreign ministers in December 2008 agreed to gradually resume political contacts with Moscow.

The alliance on Wednesday also sought to address Moscow's concerns over two military exercises in Georgia in May and June.

The exercises will be attended by 20 countries -- both NATO members and partner countries. Russia was invited to the exercises but refused to participate, said Appathurai. Moscow has been kept informed of the exercises and is welcome to send observers, he said.

"If Russia chooses to send observers, that's something that the alliance will look on quite positively as a way of diminishing any possible misunderstanding or concerns."

He said the exercises, planned in spring 2008, well before the start of the Georgia-Russia military conflict, pose no threat to any country.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2009)