MOSCOW, April 03. /ITAR-TASS/. The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are not interested in escalating tensions with NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a CSTO ministerial meeting in Moscow on Thursday, April 3.

“We are not seeking confrontation with anyone and hope that no one will provoke confrontation, especially in a region that is so far away from NATO,” he said.“On the contrary, for years we were offering to cooperate with NATO on Afghanistan, primarily for more effective anti-drug efforts since NATO was working inside Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force, and the CSTO worked and continues to work on the external borders of Afghanistan by carrying out operations to seize illicit drug shipments and cash flows and detain intruders,” Lavrov said.

He expressed regret that NATO “consistently and stubbornly rejected such cooperation”.