On 10 July, a meeting between the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Army General Valery Gerasimov and NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Tod Wolters took place in Baku.

The parties exchanged views on European and global security, ways to prevent incidents between Russia and NATO and the prospects for resuming dialogue between military experts. The two generals had also discussed issues related to the fight against terrorism and maritime piracy, as well as the current situations in Afghanistan and Syria. Both parties confirmed their interest in maintaining contacts.

According to NATO, the meeting reflected the priority NATO puts on transparency and predictability, and demonstrated a commitment to use it as a possible channel of communication between NATO and Russian military authorities.

The only other channel of direct communication between NATO and Russia is the NATO-Russia Council (NRC). The NRC is a mechanism for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation, joint decision and joint action, in which the individual NATO member states and Russia work as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security issues of common interest. Some of the topics of common interest to NATO and Russia include the fight against terrorism, crisis management, non-proliferation, arms control and confidence-building measures, theatre missile defence, logistics, military-to-military cooperation, defence reform and civil emergencies.

Although being purely technical in nature, the meeting in Baku could be institutionalized as the “Baku Format” which could give the capital of Azerbaijan more appeal to hold international conferences. Previously the city hosted the 43rd UNESCO World Heritage conference.