Lavrov: NATO should stop seeing relations with Russia as zero-sum game

Monitoring Desk

MOSCOW: NATO continues to see cooperation with Russia as a zero-sum game, expanding its military infrastructure closer to the Russian borders, which undermines the efforts to maintain security in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday during a press conference on the outcomes of the meeting with his Hungarian colleague Peter Szijjarto.

“In the context of European affairs, Russia-NATO relations are of great importance. We are unequivocally in favor of building them on the basis of equal and undivided security, as it has been reiterated within the OSCE. Of course, this goal proclaimed at the top level within the OSCE is inconsistent with NATO’s expansion of its military infrastructure to the east and the attempts of NATO to see joint work as a zero-sum game,” he said.

According to the minister, Hungary shows a constructive approach towards this issue.

“We value Hungary’s stance on the situation in the Euro-Atlantic region. Budapest always supports dialogue and stands against artificial confrontation, which I think is the only reasonable stance,” Lavrov noted.

The top diplomat informed that during the meeting with the Hungarian foreign minister, they had discussed Russia-EU relations.

“We are united in the opinion that these relations are not in their best form, that there are many grounds to promote mutually beneficial projects in various areas,” the Russian top diplomat said. (TASS)