MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In February, the envoy called for the alliance’s cooperation with Russia as that would help in the fight against global terrorism.
"Here NATO has quite limited resources, because fight against terrorism requires not only the use of military means, but also a wider set of tools that the alliance does not have," Grushko said.
NATO's confrontation with Russia does not correspond to Europe's security interests, Russia's Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko told Sputnik.
"Today NATO offers a confrontational agenda, which in no way corresponds to neither Europe's security nor its long-term interests," Grushko said in an interview.
The envoy criticized the Alliance's eastward expansion, stressing that NATO did not live up to its promises to Russia when accepting new members.
"Relations with all East European countries that joined NATO did not improve after their accession despite assurances that the situation would qualitatively improve after they become NATO members," Grushko stated.
"On the contrary, we see that so-called front-line states, which say that they are in the line of fire, that they must be protected, that demand rotational as well as permanent deployment of foreign forces, that insist for new bases to be crated, set NATO's tone. This appears to be a return to the Cold War era," Grushko said, stressing that this level of relations undermines common Russian-European security efforts as well as the creation of a Europe free of divisions.
Russia is making a number of proposals to hold dialogue with NATO on military activity and jointly countering emergent threats, Grushko added.
"The current contacts on all levels are insufficient… Our defense officials presented a whole range of specific proposals on how to set up dialogue. This includes talks on issues of military activity, we also offered military officials to consider how to cooperate in countering new threats and challenges," he said.
The Alliance, however, remains unprepared for holding such dialogue, he noted.
"Steps are being taken, but unfortunately NATO cannot overcome the burden of ideological decisions made in Warsaw."
NATO decided to boost its presence in Eastern Europe during last year's summit in Warsaw to counter alleged Russian aggression.
