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Russia has every right to ensure its security if NATO expands — diplomat

Russia considers NATO expansion a threat

MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Russian ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko has urged the West to reckon with Russia’s right to ensuring its security in a situation where the North-Atlantic pact declares the inadmissibility of interference in the process of its own expansion.

"When [NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg points out this principle [impossibility to deny one or another country the right to join NATO - TASS] he disregards the principle of collective security, under which no side can strengthen its security at the expense of other sides," Grushko said in an interview with the Rossiya’24 news channel.

Each country has the right to ensure its security, he said.

"And Russia considers NATO expansion to be a threat to it and this is said in our Military Doctrine," Grushko said. "If we continue doing things like this, without taking account of each other’s interests, we’ll achieve nothing except an arms race."