Russian FM lashes out at NATO's expansionism

MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized expansionism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its attempt to extend footprints to the entire Eastern Hemisphere.

In an article published on the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, Lavrov warned that NATO is undermining the existing regional architecture around the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and creating a new hotspot of geopolitical tension in the Asia-Pacific region.

Washington is forming military-political mini-alliances under its control, such as AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States), the trio of the United States, Japan and South Korea, as well as the quartet of Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra and Wellington, and involving them in practical cooperation with NATO, which is deploying its infrastructure in the Pacific arena, Lavrov said.

These efforts pose a threat to the inclusive, consensus-based regional architecture around ASEAN, Lavrov said in the article titled "Observance of the principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interrelation -- a guarantee of international peace and stability."