Russian Foreign Minister: NATO to Crawl into Asia-Pacific

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained that the North Atlantic Defense Organization (NATO) will soon enter Asia-Pacific territory. Then, NATO will claim the block's defense line in the disputed South China Sea.

"Not when, but when. And it can happen as soon as possible, NATO is harrying into Asia-Pacific territory," Lavrov said while speaking at the Primakov Readings community, Wednesday (7/12/2022), conveyed by the website of the Russian information office, TASS.

Lavrov has an opinion NATO will claim one more time if the defense regulations still remain in place. "And NATO is a defense coalition. But their line of defense will be in the South China Sea," he said.

The South China Sea as a disputed area between China and several Southeast Asian countries. The Bamboo Curtain Country claims the majority of the vital water area as the territorial side. The United States (US) as one of the NATO members who participated in the vocal echoed the rejection of Beijing's claim to the South China Sea area.

Last month, Lavrov had expressed his idea of NATO's willingness to take a special role in the Asia-Pacific territories. He explained that NATO is not a purely protective coalition. They became a coalition so when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Accords still existed. According to Lavrov, since the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Accords did not exist, it was not clear from whom NATO guarded or defended them.

"They (NATO) have already shifted this line of defense closer to our (Russian) bank a lot. They are currently announcing at the Madrid summit this summer if they have global responsibility and if the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions cannot be separated," Lavrov told mass media after taking part in the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 13.

"In fact, they are currently claiming that they will play a special role here (Asia-Pacific territory) and have shifted what the defense line mentions to the South China Sea," Lavrov added.

Lavrov is dismayed that NATO is "militarizing" Asia-Pacific territory. Moscow, Lavrov said, openly detailed its assessment of this in relation to the East Asia Summit.

"Unfortunately, this does not make the US and its allies weigh the needs of the majority of countries that are here. But we will continue to convey our status, even though there is no agreement in ASEAN on how to continue the security sector in this territory. So if the intention is to sow vacillation in ASEAN and try to weaken their monolithic status, therefore America has reached their direction," he said.

Lavrov wrote that the status of the majority of ASEAN countries concentrates on defending its own needs and does not subordinate ASEAN's treatment to extra-regional players. "Some of our partners take a high view of Russia's status, China's status, which provides conservation support for the role of ASEAN centers," he said.