Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, berated Washington, NATO and the EU for providing Ukraine with weapons, which he said might spark a direct military conflict between nuclear powers.
"The United States, NATO and the European Union are pumping Kiev with more modern weapons, fomenting the Ukraine conflict further and provoking the uncontrolled spread of weapons across the world. Their adventurous and irresponsible policy significantly increases the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers," Lavrov pointed out.
He accused Western countries of trying to scrap the security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region and create military blocs there for promoting NATO infrastructure.
"Having proclaimed the indivisibility of the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific region, NATO members crossed out all their previous mantra about the purely defensive nature of the alliance and officially declared that from now on, they will not only protect their territory, but will also promote their dominance in this region, the top Russian diplomat stressed.
Lavrov also said that Russia is concerned over the US’ apparent drive “to derail’ the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, “one of the cornerstone elements of the global security architecture.”
"In particular, we observe that such risks are being created as a result of the US’ clear attempts to withdraw from the procedure of this treaty the Anglo-Saxon nuclear project within the framework of the new military bloc AUKUS," the Russian foreign minister said.