U.S. soldiers take part in the urban fighting drill during the NATO Saber Strike exercise in the Soviet-time former military town near Skrunda, Latvia June 13, 2018. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should work to avoid misunderstanding and resume dialogue in the military sphere to resolve existing problems, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"The main thing today is to find ways towards de-escalation, to strengthen the instruments of preventing dangerous incidents of military nature and to work on avoiding the misinterpretation of each other's intentions," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko was quoted by Tass news agency as saying.

He underlined that it is necessary to promote the transparency of military activities and restore contacts in the military sphere.

In particular, member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have put forward proposals on pushing increased military activities away from the borders of contact, he said.

"Without this professional dialogue between the militaries, it will be simply impossible to implement all that I spoke about," Grushko added.

Tensions between Russia and NATO have exacerbated in recent years with both sides conducting major military drills in the border areas and accusing each other of breaching arms control treaties.

In April, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that civil and military cooperation between Russia and NATO had stopped, except for respective contacts between Moscow and individual countries of the alliance.