The West wants to direct ASEAN to work against Russia and China, Moscow observes the risks of militarization of the Asia-Pacific region against the backdrop of the policies of Western countries, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We drew attention to the risks of militarization of the region as a result of such policies of Western countries, risks for the stability of the Asian parts of our common continent and for sustainable development. We, in turn, confirmed that Russia consistently supports the efforts of the ASEAN countries, which are aimed at maintaining peace, ensuring equal cooperation with all partners of the association, and the West wants to make ASEAN its main partner, and to target it. this partnership is against the interests of Russia and China, first of all,” Lavrov said following the results of the 19th East Asia Summit.
He added that the summit showed that Western countries are working to undermine the multilateral architecture around ASEAN. According to him, the United States and its allies have “set a course to include” the Asia-Pacific region in NATO’s zone of interests.
“Numerous, narrow, closed, military-political associations controlled by the Americans are being created here. These are the “troika” “USA-Japan-Korea”, “USA-Japan-Philippines”. There is such an Indo-Pacific “four” (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan). And all this does not contribute to collective work. This fragments this common space, and divides it into friends and foes,” the head of the Russian diplomatic department emphasized.
Lavrov noted that the United States tried to promote the topics of escalation in the South China Sea and the conflict in Ukraine at the summit.
“This attempt took place, this attempt did not find any response from the ASEAN members. Participants from the Western group, including Japan, New Zealand, Australia, agreed with the American theses. But I repeat once again, this did not have any practical effect at this event,” the head said Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
The annual series of leadership meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries kicked off in the capital of Laos on Tuesday, and on Friday the events will culminate with the annual East Asia Leadership Summit, whose permanent participants include both ASEAN countries and a number of their dialogue partners, including Russia, China and the USA.
