This week's NATO summit in Warsaw is expected to endorse a military build-up that it claims comes in response to conflict in Ukraine. After the summit, the military alliance plans to hold formal talks with Russia.

"The NATO-Russia Council has an important role to play as a forum for dialogue and information exchange, to reduce tensions and increase predictability. That is why we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the council shortly after the summit, where transparency and risk reduction should be an important topic," said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General.

The last time the NATO-Russia Council held a meeting was in April, the first such meeting since June 2014 when relations were effectively frozen.

The talks in April ended with "profound disagreements" over Ukraine and other issues. Russia has warned that NATO's military build-up is provoking an arms race "frenzy" in Europe and that Moscow will be forced to respond. It has also warned Finland it will respond if Helsinki chooses to join NATO.