HANOI, December 10. /TASS/. The NATO-style alliances that have begun to emerge in Asia create additional threats for Moscow and for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in general, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said.
"We can see the emergence of what some call <...> ‘small forms’ - they can be called by various terms - but those are NATO-style alliances in Asia. In short, alliances are starting to emerge here that one way or another tend to exacerbate the situation as they create additional threats, particularly for our country and ASEAN as a whole," he told reporters.
"They are directed <...> against someone. We just need to figure out who exactly it is," Shoigu noted.
Summing up the results of a Russian delegation’s visit to the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, the Security Council secretary pointed out that the issue of regional security had been discussed in detail. "In this regard, we are primarily interested in a system centered around ASEAN that would help preserve ASEAN in its present form and maintain Russia’s ties with ASEAN so that senior Russian and ASEAN officials responsible for national security continue to hold meetings. We would certainly like to see it all continue," Shoigu emphasized.