MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russia took NATO’s updated strategic concept into account when working on its own draft foreign policy concept, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Friday.
"Russia’s practice of strategic and foreign policy planning includes the use of a wide range of information sources because the goal is to objectively assess the global situation and the prospects for its development. In particular, the assessment takes into account the approaches of influential countries and interstate associations, including unfriendly ones, which are enshrined in their doctrinal documents. Those include the updated strategic concept of the North Atlantic Alliance, adopted in 2022," Zakharova pointed out in response to a question about the development of Russia’s updated Foreign Policy Concept.
In case other countries take unfriendly actions, "including those involving the use of political and economic restrictions and advanced information and communication technologies, Russia considers it prudent to take symmetrical and asymmetrical measures necessary for suppressing such unfriendly actions and preventing them in the future," she added.
Zakharova specified that the key principles of Russia’s foreign policy included consistency, independence, a multi-vector approach, openness, predictability, pragmatism and reliance on national interests.
The diplomat noted that Russia was ready "to boost equal and mutually beneficial relations with all countries and groups of countries that are also interested in that."