MOSCOW, October 12. TASS/. ASEAN is feeling the heat from outside forces who want to reform Asia to their liking, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said.
"It is extremely important that the association, in the face of huge pressure, refuses to follow the logic of bloc confrontation and remains at the center of an inclusive, balanced and transparent security architecture," Rudenko said at the annual conference of the ASEAN Center "Russia-ASEAN in the Asia-Pacific region" at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University). "That is why it (ASEAN - TASS) and the mechanisms of pan-regional cooperation created by it are now under huge pressure from those who have set out to reformat Asia to their liking."
"The initiative for a so-called free and open Pacific region, launched several years ago at the suggestion of the US, Japan and Australia, is being implemented in practice by imposing a rigid system of bloc deterrence and building NATO's military-strategic potential in the Asia-Pacific region," the diplomat pointed out. "We are seeing a dangerous trend, the expansion of the range of confrontationally charged blocs, including QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which unites Australia, India, Japan and the US - TASS) and AUKUS (Alliance of Australia, the UK and the US - TASS) with its nuclear component," Rudenko said. According to him, individual ASEAN members are attracted to such configurations, for which territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the situation around Myanmar are used.
The diplomat pointed out that Russia does not accept attempts of this destructive paradigm. "We are in favor of opening mutually beneficial non-aligned cooperation for all, strengthening integration processes in our common region," the senior diplomat said.