NATO, Russia to hold first talks since Skripal attack

NATO will on Thursday hold its first formal talks with Russia since the nerve agent attack on a former Kremlin double agent in Britain, as the alliance seeks to counter Moscow's increasing assertiveness. Tensions between the transatlantic alliance and Russia have hit post-Cold War highs in recent years over Moscow's annexation of Crimea and more recently the attempted assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury. NATO vehemently criticised Moscow over the attack in March, the first hostile use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two, and expelled seven Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated international response.

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