MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. It’s hard for Moscow to believe in dialogue with NATO when tanks and other weapons are being deployed near Russia’s borders, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper published on Tuesday.

"They say that they can engage in dialogue with Russia at any time and they don’t seek confrontation, though NATO’s military planning is based on confrontation with Russia. When someone deploys tanks under your nose, saying that ‘it’s not against you, it’s stationed there for no reason at all,’ it is very hard to believe in any kind of dialogue," the senior Russian diplomat pointed out.

Grushko emphasized that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had jettisoned all cooperation mechanisms, making diplomatic communication impossible. "In particular, enormous efforts were made at the last meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on December 12, 2021 to make it happen at all. This is why we no longer have a diplomatic presence at NATO as the bloc’s hostile actions put an end to it," he noted.