MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Attempts of the United States to create powerful military infrastructure in Asia are unfounded, as Washington is strongly exaggerating the scope of threats existing in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel News Asia television.

"The United States is engaged in a very huge military buildup in Asia, including under the pretext of countering the North Korean threat but the scale of the buildup is way beyond the need and disproportionally huge," the foreign minister said.

He drew attention to the fact that the US was "also building missile defense in cooperation with Japan and South Korea, which is not helpful at all."

"And the fact that the United States dropped from the ABM Treaty some time ago was a destabilizing factor of global importance. It triggers buildup and brings us back to the mutually assured destruction logic as it relates to the strategic stability," the top diplomat said.

"Russia does not want any arms race and Russia would not engage in the arms race. We have enough technological means to provide a not very expensive answer to the efforts to build missile defence, especially when the Iranian nuclear issue has been resolved," he continued.

"President Obama in 2009 publicly said that if the Iranian nuclear issue is resolved, there would be no need for missile defense in Europe. It seems that he was not telling the truth," Lavrov added.