Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Washington and NATO of trying to dominate the Asia-Pacific region through militarization and fomenting conflicts.
Lavrov stressed that “NATO claims a leading role in the Asia-Pacific region, but its policies indicate otherwise.”
He explained that NATO was a defensive alliance when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact existed, but after 1990 and Russia’s preoccupation with its internal crises, there was no equivalent force. the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the China Sea, and that she does not agree to share this responsibility with any other party under the pretense of playing leading roles.
Lavrov drew attention to Washington’s efforts to militarize the Asia-Pacific region through joint efforts with its allies in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in order to expand NATO’s borders without taking into account the interests of other countries, and emphasized the consensus position of Moscow and Beijing on this matter.
He called on the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to determine their national interests away from Western pressure and unite their ranks to counter NATO’s military expansion and undermine its plans for world domination.
Lavrov touched upon the new AUCUS military bloc, which includes the US, Australia and the UK and seeks to attract New Zealand, Canada and Japan, and the bloc’s unjustified activities in the China Sea, stressing that it is part of NATO’s plan to expand its borders and militarize the region .
Source: TASS