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Senior Russian diplomat slams US statements on Brazil's NATO membership

NATO members should be given credit for their ambitions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said

© Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Remarks by US President Donald Trump on Brazil’s potential NATO membership are not conducive to easing tensions throughout the world, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Wednesday.

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"NATO members should be given credit for their ambitions. President Trump recently suggested expanding the alliance’s area of responsibility to South America, admitting that Brazil, a BRICS member-country, could join NATO," he said at the conference titled "OSCE: Prospects for Pan-European and Eurasian Security and Cooperation." "It is not quite clear whether he read the Washington Treaty, which specifies who can become the alliance’s member. Anyway, this policy of achieving unilateral advantages aimed at reshaping the current multipolar world in accordance with last century’s patterns, is extremely viable. Of course, these statements are not conducive to defusing the atmosphere of confrontation."

Trump earlier said at a White House meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that Washington was considering NATO membership for Brazil.

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