NATO and Russia will resume diplomatic contacts for the first time since the war in Georgia, the alliance's spokesman said Thursday. Spokesman James Appathurai said NATO's secretary-general and Russia's ambassador to the Western alliance will meet informally Friday _ the first such meeting since NATO froze diplomatic contacts in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Georgia in August. Russian Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin has said previously he would welcome the resumption of ties, but his mission played down expectations for the meeting with Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. «We don't expect anything specific ... but it is a step in unfreezing our relations,» said Igor Semenenko, a senior Russian diplomat in Brussels, according to a report of Associated Press.
