MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. NATO does not seem to be making attempts aimed at resuming military dialogue, Russian Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said on Wednesday at the Sixth Moscow Conference on International Security.
"We don’t see NATO making any attempts to resume military dialogue," he said adding that the situation was "absolutely discouraging."
Grushko stressed that this was one of the factors that prevented attempts to build a security system together with Russia instead of setting up a system that would not involve Russia or even be aimed against it.
Russian ambassador warns EU against increasing defense spending
The European countries’ growing defense spending points to their militarization while there is no actual threat, Grushko said.
"I would like to point out that the campaign for increasing defense spending is dangerous. The European countries have been allocating $250 billion on their defense, which is a huge amount of money, exceeding that of Russia and China," Gatilov said. "If NATO member states live up to the alliance’s standards, they will have to increase their defense spending by $100 billion, which will make $350 billion."
"This will point to their movement towards militarization while there is no actual threat, so this money could be spent on the fight against terrorism and other non-conventional threats instead of the fictional Russian threat," Grushko added.
"We run the risk of engaging in a new Cold War," he noted. "Some crucial decisions need to be made to stop what is going on now in Central Europe which used to be the most safe place free of threats," the Russian ambassador said.