NATO Cannot Exist Without Enemy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik on Monday that NATO was an organization that could not exist without an enemy.

"NATO is such an organization that cannot live without an enemy. Without an enemy it will die. The most important [for it] is to create an image of the enemy and moving toward borders of this potential enemy", Grushko said.

He noted that now NATO is spreading into new regions and organizing its military infrastructure around China.

“Now they already declared Asia a zone of the alliance’s interests and moved their defense zone to the borders of China,” the deputy minister added.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the United States and the NATO member states were trying to intervene into the region of ASEAN and establish military alliances to deter China and Russia.