“As for the medical issue, you know, I wouldn’t like to enter into any polemic regarding the diagnoses. If President Macron felt that this diagnosis was a face, he has every right to express it. He knows NATO much better than I do, because he represents a country that is one of the leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance. Of course, we would like to have a normal dialogue with NATO. It was not our fault that practically all forms of cooperation were frozen. It was not our fault that the military dialogue was terminated. We were not the initiators of the measures that NATO took against the Russian delegation to the North Atlantic Alliance in Brussels. They are simply kept for several days, without giving elementary answers to requests for meetings. But we will not beg for it, of course, ”Lavrov said.
According to him, Russia is in favor of equal, mutually beneficial cooperation with NATO.
“As soon as NATO recovers, we will not keep ourselves waiting,” the Russian minister emphasized.
Macron previously stated that NATO is in a state of "brain death." According to him, Europeans are “on the edge of the abyss” and can no longer count on US military defense. The President noted the need for Europe to start thinking of itself as an independent geopolitical force.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on Macron’s statement, called the president’s “golden words” truthful and reflective.