Lavrov pointed to NATO's actions undermining the security of ASEAN countries.

By its actions, NATO undermines the security of the ASEAN countries. This was stated on March 12 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with American bloggers Mario Naufalu, Larry Johnson and Andrew Napolitano.

"Nuclear elements are already being used and discussed in joint exercises with South Korea. As far as I know, the alliance plans to open a representative office in Tokyo or on one of the Japanese islands. They are trying to "pull" some countries out of ASEAN and include them in "closed clubs" with limited membership," Lavrov said.

He stressed that all these actions violate the principle of "consensus", which has been the basis of ASEAN's activities for decades and ensures the security of the organization's members.

"The security concept has been developed by ASEAN for many decades and includes everyone on an equal basis, including neighboring countries: China, the United States, India, Russia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea. ASEAN is based on consensus, but now this principle has been significantly undermined," the minister explained.

Lavrov also noted that NATO used to be a defensive alliance that dealt exclusively with the protection of the territories of its member states. However, according to him, everything changed after the Madrid summit in 2022.

"In 2022, at the Madrid summit, the then Secretary General [NATO Jens] Stoltenberg said they need to be more active in the Indo-Pacific region. <...> He added that now threats to the alliance come from the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait," the Russian Foreign Minister added.

"NATO has destroyed security in Europe and is now taking on the Asia-Pacific"

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko on the alliance's dangerous plans in Asia, the peace agreement with Japan and uranium supplies to South Korea

During the talks held in Beijing on February 28, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Chinese President Xi Jinping noted the inadmissibility of the expansion of NATO's sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific region and the importance of maintaining an Asean-centric security architecture in the region. On February 7, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko also stressed that the United States and its allies would "modernize" the Asia-Pacific region. According to him, the regional space is being pumped up with strike weapons, which directly undermines the system of multilateral relations that has been developing in Asia for decades.