MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The European Union can hardly act independently in a new polycentric world system, if it stands for the US return to Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Iran’s state television and radio broadcaster on Saturday.

"The Europeans, unfortunately, are increasingly giving signals that they cannot act independently in a new world order and are increasingly saying that they want the Euro-Atlantic solidarity to be restored and the US to return to Europe," Russia’s top diplomat pointed out.

"If this is so, Europe will not be one of the poles of the new polycentric system of international relations," Lavrov said.

By keeping its influence on Europe, the United States will attempt to maximally reduce the number of other actors seeking to be a pole in the new world system, he noted.

"In this situation, China has been chosen as the main opponent and threat to the West, considering its powerful development," Lavrov said.

"From the human point of view, it is very strange to declare China a threat to the entire Western world for the fact that it is developing its economy, raising the wellbeing of its citizens and ensuring its security more effectively. This is the mentality inherited from the past epoch that has to be parted with," Russia’s top diplomat stressed.

However, the process of forming a multi-polar world is irreversible, Lavrov said. "History cannot be stopped. But we see the attempts to put this process on hold," Russia’s foreign minister said.

The United States keeps exerting pressure on the EU to make it halt the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The EU Foreign Affairs Council made a statement on December 7 on relations with the United States under the new administration of Democrat Joseph Biden, urging actually to forget all the disagreements under US President Donald Trump and restore trans-Atlantic friendship in all the spheres.