NIZHNY NOVGOROD, June 11. /TASS/. Russia sees Western countries trying to "play the nuclear card" and is categorically against such provocations, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference after the meeting of BRICS foreign ministers.
"We see how the situation around Taiwan in the South China Sea is being escalated, how China is literally being provoked into sudden moves, while on the Korean Peninsula we see that an alliance is being shaped between the United States, South Korea and Japan," the top diplomat said. "They are conducting exercises, including by increasingly actively introducing nuclear components into these maneuvers. We are categorically opposed to playing nuclear provocations, the nuclear card, and this is something that the president [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said decisively at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum," Lavrov emphasized.
At the plenary session at SPIEF, Putin said that the Russian nuclear doctrine was a living instrument that could be amended if necessary.
"[The nuclear] doctrine is a living instrument, and we are closely watching what is happening in the world around us. We do not rule out making some changes to this doctrine," the Russian leader said.