MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. NATO members intend to conduct so-called defensive battles far from their territories, in the Asia-Pacific region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"In July, at the Washington summit, NATO leaders reaffirmed their claim to the alliance's leading role not only in the Euro-Atlantic region, but also in the Asia-Pacific region. If you read the NATO declaration, it turns out that this 'defensive' alliance, in order to protect the territory of its members, intends to fight these 'defensive' battles in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait, a thousand miles from its shores,"the minister said.

According to Lavrov, all reasonable observers understand "that this is a road to nowhere". "However, the Americans are deliberately introducing NATO's military infrastructure into the Pacific Ocean, not hiding the goal of increasing pressure on China, North Korea, and Russia," he added.