MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Moscow is astonished at the statements of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about alleged ‘Russian aggression,’ the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday commenting on the results of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels.

"As far as we can see, maintaining unity within a multilateral structure, like NATO which incorporates such different states, is not an easy mission," the ministry said.

"It requires a strong uniting motive. It did not take much effort for NATO ministers to find it, as follows from their comments. They have always on their mind one and the same thing - a myth of a ‘Russian threat,’ allegations about ‘Russian aggression’ and endless mantras about the necessity to meet is collectively."

"We were astonished at the corresponding pronouncements by US State Secretary Rex Tillerson," the ministry said.

Russia-NATO 

Russia sees no signs of NATO’s readiness to resume practical cooperation:

"We have a legitimate question: can we expect any constructive approaches in the Russian-NATO relations when the alliance is stubbornly sticking to its old patterns, when the United States and its allies are obsessed with building up their military presence at our borders justifying it with the necessity of ‘containing Russia’?," the ministry noted.

"Actually, we are being drawn into a confrontational paradigm of relations based on the logic of military confrontation," the ministry said. "Notably, no signs are seen of the alliance’s readiness to resume practical cooperation in the sphere of our common interests, to move towards addressing real security challenges, with regional terrorist threats among them."