As the Foreign Minister noted following the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE countries, at the NATO summit in London, decisions were made on a record increase in the military budgets of the countries of this alliance.
The Minister emphasized that the current budgets are more than ten times higher than the military budget of the Russian Federation.
“Therefore, the facts that are available indicate a simple and understandable situation for everyone: NATO wants to dominate the Euro-Atlantic, and if we take the behavior of NATO in other regions of the world, in particular in the Middle East, then in the Middle East too,” said Lavrov.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance countries intend to increase military spending by $ 400 billion by 2024.
The Kremlin commented on such a decision. They noted that mainly NATO is engaged in "restraining and expansionist activities" in relation to Russia, and such budgets "once again confirm this."
At the same time, Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov recalled Vladimir Putin’s statements that Moscow “will not get involved in an arms race and a spending race that is detrimental to the economy.”