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Pentagon’s course on "containment" of Russia, China regrettable, says Lavrov

09 July 2020 00:52 (UTC +04:00)

The remarks made by US Defense Secretary Mark Esper regarding Washington’s successful "containment" of alleged aggression of Russia and China sparked regret in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday following a videoconference with his counterparts from the African Union trio (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and South Africa), APA reports quoting TASS.

"If the Pentagon head considers containment of Russia and China the main goal of its agency, this means that the same philosophy is practiced by the current US administration, which is literally possessed by a wish to contain everyone but itself, seeking to eliminate everything that limits the freedom of action or even the freedom of, say, impunity of the US administration at the global arena — be it the INF Treaty, the Treaty on Open Skies, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the activity of UNESCO, of the UN Human Rights Council or the World Health Organization," he noted. "Such attitude, such philosophy of the Pentagon head is regrettable, because we are interested in development of a normal dialogue with all countries, including, of course, the US."

The foreign diplomat called Esper’s remarks regrettable considering that the military usually "display more cautiousness in situations that could lead to conflict, especially the hot ones."

"These days, in their dialogue with us, the Americans seek to put away the very term ‘strategic stability’ and to replace it with ‘strategic competition’," he continued. "Therefore, the philosophy itself suggests that the Americans prepare for conflict with any country that would seek to protect its interests. This is bad, bad for the US itself."

The top diplomat speculated that, by exaggerating some threats from Russia and China, Washington seeks to distract the attention of the American people from the current internal problems that have become more acute.

"The election campaign considerations probably play its role as well as political points must be scored," he added. "But it is regrettable if this would be done at the expense of elimination of checks and balances at the global arena, at the expense of untying of hands for various ventures that seek to win additional votes."

"We would like any country to build its foreign policy by prioritizing not containment of someone, but rather strategic stability, based on a balance of interests of all nations, including, of course the leading global powers," Lavrov underscored. "We advocate dialogue, strategic stability, as proposed by President Putin, including within the framework of our initiative to call the UN Security Council permanent members summit."