Russian Foreign Minister Says NATO Expansion Will Not Stop

JAKARTA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) continues relentlessly, regardless of the guarantees given during the Soviet Union.

Speaking at the International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk, Belarus he stated, "NATO's expansion does not stop for a second, regardless of promises made to Soviet leaders that the alliance will not move slightly east," quoted from TASS Oct. 28.

"This ongoing expansion openly ignores the highest level commitment in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which stipulates not to strengthen security on its own at the expense of other parties or pursue regional and global domination," he explained.

As Foreign Minister Lavrov emphasized, Russia sees the majority of NATO and European Union countries refusing to recognize the fact that Western domination has ended and a new era of history has begun.

"This marks the fundamental differences between them and Russia, our CIS partners, China, India, Iran, the DPRK (North Korea) and other Eurasian countries, who believe that the key to the stability and prosperity of our continent lies in a strict respect for the principles of equality of sovereignty and security that are inseparable for all, not just a handful of people who place themselves above law and morality," he said.

"It is not the fault of Russia or our allies if the international arms control agreement has been systematically broken and eventually abandoned in recent years," Foreign Minister Lavrov nodes.