The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to Russia's unwillingness to see NATO's expansion into Asia

The Russian authorities do not want NATO's expansion into Asian countries and hope that the region will preserve its own identity. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said at the XV Asian Conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Malaysia on December 9.

"Within the framework of the "open" Pacific model, the US and its allies are pursuing a strategy of systematic deterrence. The goal is to isolate some countries they consider undesirable or inconvenient by excluding them from regional cooperation. They are trying to nullify not only the geographical but also the geopolitical identity of Asia," he said.

Rudenko stressed that the Russian Federation does not want to see in the region "neither further militarization of the region nor creeping expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

The theme of the XV Asian Conference of the Valdai Club, which is taking place on December 9-10 in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, was "Russia's Perception of the Asia-Pacific Region: Strategic Partnership and Development Prospects."

Earlier, on November 25, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia's deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Asia is one of Moscow 's options for responding to similar actions by the United States. According to the diplomat, practice shows that entreaties and arguments against the adversary have no proper effect.

On November 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed out that NATO was extending its influence to the Asia-Pacific region under the guise of ensuring the security of its members. In the same month, the minister drew attention to the fact that the U.S. continues to introduce NATO infrastructure into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized back in September that the weapons the U.S. is deploying in Asia pose a threat to China and the Russian Federation.

In August, political scientist Pavel Feldman told Izvestia that the United States is trying to create a so-called NATO analog in the Asia-Pacific region. He believes that the U.S. is losing interest in its Western allies and is more eager to engage in actions in Asia to prevent the rise of China.

In April, it was revealed that the US had deployed medium-range missiles in the Philippines. In September, U.S. Secretary of the Army Christine Warmuth said the U.S. was interested in deploying land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Japan. Ryabkov then warned that Russia would give a comprehensive military-technical response if such plans by Washington were realized.

And in February, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Japan and the United States for the first time designated China as a hypothetical enemy during joint military exercises. According to the newspaper, Washington and Tokyo practiced scenarios of a possible invasion of Taiwan in the course of computer modeling.