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Russia Views NATO Invite to Montenegro as Confrontational Move

Sputnik News

20:43 02.12.2015(updated 21:37 02.12.2015)

Moscow views NATO decision to start talks with Montenegro on the country's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a blatantly confrontational step that could have additional destabilizing consequences to the European security, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Moscow considers NATO's invitation to Montenegro to join the Alliance as a blatantly confrontational move that directly affects Russia's interests and could lead to the destabilization of security situation in Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

NATO formally invited Montenegro earlier on Wednesday to join the 28-nation bloc, despite deep divisions on the matter within the tiny Adriatic nation.

'We view NATO decision to start talks with Montenegro on the country's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, adopted by NATO foreign ministers on December 1-2 in Brussels, as a blatantly confrontational step that could have additional destabilizing consequences to the European security,' the ministry said in a statement.

'A new spiral of NATO expansion directly affects Russia's interests and forces us to adopt adequate response measures,' the statement said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused NATO of attempts to split the world into friends and foes, and endangering security of non-member states by taking a reckless course toward expanding the area of it geopolitical influence.

The ministry stressed that, in the face of emerging and multiplying threats to global security, nations should move closer together to look for ways to deescalate tensions in Europe, instead of driving a wedge between countries.

NATO's invitation is the first expansion of the US-led military bloc since it accepted Albania and Croatia in 2009. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Macedonia have all made strides toward accession, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

© Sputnik