West should not establish military facilities on territory of former USSR states: Russian FM Lavrov

The West should not establish military facilities on the territory of former USSR states that are not members of NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, days after Moscow launched a massive military operation against Ukraine.

Moscow: The West should not establish military facilities on the territory of former USSR states that are not members of NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, days after Moscow launched a massive military operation against Ukraine.

In a video address to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Russia's top diplomat also emphasised that Moscow believes that obtaining legally binding security guarantees from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members is of paramount importance. "[Our] Western colleagues have not yet shown any willingness to provide Russia with long-term legally binding security guarantees. For us, achieving these objectives is of fundamental importance, Lavrov said.

"Western countries should refrain from establishing military facilities on the territory of former USSR states that are not members of the alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency. It is necessary to return NATO's military capabilities, including strike [capabilities], and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was adopted, Lavrov said.

Russia has long resisted Ukraine's move towards the European Union and the West's defensive military alliance, NATO. In a pre-dawn TV address on February 24, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia could not feel "safe, develop and exist" because of what he claimed was a constant threat from modern Ukraine.

Putin claimed that his goal was to protect people subjected to bullying and genocide and aim for the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of Ukraine. In his address, the Russian foreign minister also attacked the trilateral partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS). He said the military alliance between the three countries affects the nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime, provokes tension and creates pre-requisites for a new spiral of the arms race.

"The contradictory idea by Australia, Great Britain and the US to create the AUKUS exclusive pact causes our questions. It is obvious that AUKUS is adversely affecting the nuclear non-proliferation regime, provoking tension and creating pre-requisites for unleashing a new spiral of the arms race and, what is more, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, he pointed out. On September 15, 2021, Australia, the UK and the US announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership called AUKUS, under which Australia was to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with the help American technologies.

PTI