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Journalism of Courage
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said NATO’s enlargement near Russian borders is like a relapse to the Cold War.
“We do not think NATO’s expansion is necessary…,” Lavrov said at a news conference after his talks with the visiting Finnish Foreign Minister. “A political recurrence, bloc-minded approaches and Cold War attitudes are reflected in the NATO expansion. Present-day threats are not related to this…,” he said.
Lavrov added that Europe should instead join the effort to counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and other threats before the world.
The minister said Russia welcomes cooperation with NATO within existing formats. “There are various formats of cooperation between NATO and Russia, or Ukraine or other countries. There are no obstacles to joint work,” he said.
Recently, Russia has repeatedly voiced serious concern over NATO’s plans to include the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance. Three former Soviet Baltic republics and seven former Soviet-bloc states in Eastern Europe have already joined NATO since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Moscow, which opposes NATO’s expansion plans and the deployment of the US national missile shield in Europe, has imposed a moratorium on implementation of the CFE treaty.
Lavrov’s remarks came after Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivnaov’s statement on Wednesday that if Moscow’s new proposals on the missile shield in Europe are accepted, the need will disappear for Russia to deploy new missiles in the European part of the country, including the Kaliningrad region. “After this, you will forget about the term Cold War..,” Ivanov told reporters.
