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NATO’s presence in no way strengthens security — Russian foreign ministry

Russia is not destabilizing the situation in Europe, as NATO’s representatives allege, on the contrary, it is interested in "preserving the stable security architecture in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic region based on international agreements and the United Nations Charter"

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. NATO’s presence in regions around the world in no way enhances their security because the alliance only augments regional confrontation and imposes its vision on the world order, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday, commenting on NATO’s article on myths about relations between Russia and the Alliance. 

"NATO’s presence helps strengthen regional security. Refutation: this is an illusion. It’s sufficient to recollect the consequences of NATO’s bombardment of the former Yugoslavia, the collapse of the statehood in Libya. The latest example is Afghanistan. The 20-year-long presence of NATO contingents in Afghanistan and their subsequent hasty ‘escape’ reached neither of the targeted goals. The situation has only worsened. Today, the Alliance is again seeking to go beyond the borders of its traditional zone of responsibility, to impose its vision of the world order on other regions. It involves its partners in the implementation of these goals. NATO always offers to "be friends against someone." And the new wave of the geographical expansion of the sphere of NATO’s interests to the Asia Pacific region has an openly confrontational character. The Alliance is seeking to turn this part of the world from a space of cooperation into a zone of active geopolitical competition," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, NATO’s declaring cyberspace and outer space its "domain of operations" undermines international efforts towards creating legally binding mechanisms for the prevention of the use of these spheres for military purposes.

Russia is not destabilizing the situation in Europe, as NATO’s representatives allege, on the contrary, it is interested in "preserving the stable security architecture in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic region based on international agreements and the United Nations Charter," it said.

"However, with the tacit consent of its NATO allies, Washington, in recent years, has been deliberately ruining the properly functioning mechanisms of international law. The most vivid example is the crisis around the INF Treaty (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty - TASS). Two weeks after the United States withdrew from this treaty in August 2019, it demonstratively tested a Tomahawk-family intermediate-range cruise missile, which was banned under the above-mentioned treaty. Notably, this launch carried out from the Mk-41 ground-based launcher only proved the validity of Russia’s claims to the US-NATO facilities of the Aegis Ashore strategic military infrastructure deployed near the Russian borders. We voiced these claims to the United States for years in the context of the INF Treaty but received no constructive response to it," the ministry said.

Apart from that, the ministry recalled, the United States is carrying out research and conducting trials of a wide spectrum of other ground-based shorter-and intermediate-range missile systems. "Concurrently, we hear the US military calling for their prompt deployment in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It vividly demonstrates that breaking down the INF Treaty Washington wanted to get rid of restrictions of the development of its potential meant to exert pressure on countries it sees as its rivals and possible foes and it had nothing to do with the mythical ‘violations’ of the INF Treaty by Russia," the ministry said.