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Lavrov stresses Russia-NATO Founding Act 'key agreement for European security'

The Russian top diplomat urges NATO to avoid departure from the Russia-NATO Founding Act

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. The Russia-NATO Founding Act remains one of the key agreements in the field of European Security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a conference of scholars devoted to the intellectual heritage of Russia’s prominent politician and diplomat Yevgeny Primakov.

In particular, Lavrov noted the "colossal damage that was caused to Russia’s security interests and the pan-European interests as a result of treacherous actions by our partners, who had made promises NATO would not expand or place its military infrastructure around our country, near our borders."

"They crudely violated these promises in the end," Lavrov said.

"In any case, in accordance with the clauses of the Founding Act the parties agreed not to regard each other as adversaries, while NATO assumed a number of specific commitments to display military restraint," Lavrov said. "This should be appreciated, of course."

"Therefore we see the Russia-NATO Founding Act as one of the key agreements in the field of European security," Lavrov said. "We are urging NATO members to prevent departure from its principles and the code of conduct. Regrettably, there’ve been some attempts to the contrary.".