UNITED NATIONS, July 16. /TASS/. Washington urges its allies to prepare for protracted wars, and not in Europe alone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at the ministerial debate at the UN Security Council.
"In order to replace inclusive mechanisms affiliated with the ASEAN [Association of South East Asian Nations], the United States and its allies are establishing closed confrontational blocs like AUKUS [security partnership between Australia, the UK and the United States] and other various ‘quartets’ and ‘trios’ that are subordinate to them," Russia’s top diplomat stated.
"Just recently, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks stated that the United States and its allies should be preparing for protracted wars and not only in Europe," Lavrov said.
The Russian minister noted that for the sake of "restraining" Russia, China and other countries, whose independent policies viewed as a challenge to the hegemony, the West resorts to aggressive steps breaking the system of globalization that was originally created in line with its model.