ST. PETERSBURG, December 13. /TASS/. Russia might reconcile itself with the concept of the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR), proposed by the West, if it were not built for the purpose of containing individual countries and creating closed blocs for select few, like AUKUS (US, Australia and Britain), Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on the sidelines of the 13th Asian conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Instead of the ITR concept, Russia uses the concept of the Asia-Pacific Region (APR).
"Unfortunately, those structures of small geometry that are now emerging in the ITR - such as QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, includes India, the US, Japan and Australia - TASS), and AUKUS - stem from the NATO-centric paradigm, aimed at creating closed blocs for the purpose of containment of other countries. If the ITR community is not like that, if it is a truly open community based on the principles that the ASEAN countries have been committed to for a very long time and with which we, of course, agree, we can probably reconcile them (the concepts of ITR and APR - TASS) and come to terms with it themselves," Rudenko said.
He explained that at a certain stage the concept of ITR was considered as a US concept, designed to "put the emphasis on a number of countries" in order to contain China. "The main thing for us is the openness of the security systems that exist in Asia, and their focus on cooperation, and not antagonism against or containment of certain countries," Rudenko stressed.
"Probably at some stage we need to stop antagonizing these concepts, because if we really strive for an open and inclusive community and security and cooperation, then we should not antagonize countries that are key players in this or that respect," he concluded.