Russian foreign minister says EU turning into ‘NATO appendage’

by ANKASAM Ekip

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that the EU is turning from an economic union into “a NATO appendage.”

Speaking at a press briefing in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Lavrov said “the EU has turned from a constructive economic platform, as which it was created, into an aggressive militant player, declaring its ambitions far beyond the European continent.”

As an example of the EU ambition beyond the continent, Lavrov quoted a statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said the EU has to play an active role in ensuring the security of the Indo-Pacific region.

“The other day, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in her classic aggressive style, stated that the EU is obliged to play an active role in ensuring the security of the Indo-Pacific region.

“That is, they are rushing exactly along the tracks that NATO is already laying, thereby confirming the trend that they are merging with the North Atlantic Alliance and will perform the functions of its appendage,” Lavrov noted.

Russia harshly criticized the establishment of AUKUS — a trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK, and US announced on Sept. 15, 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region — qualifying it as a creation of “Asian NATO” and an attempt to revive the neo-colonial policy by the West, to subdue again its former colonies.

China also protested the establishment of AUKUS as it may serve the purposes of the country’s military containment.

AUKUS last month extended an unofficial invitation to Japan to join the bloc.

-AA

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