Russia says NATO escalating tensions in South China Sea

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says NATO is fanning the flames of tension in the South China Sea in a fashion detrimental to Russia, warning that the US-led Western military coalition has reverted to its Cold War priorities.

Speaking at a press conference on European security issues on Thursday, Lavrov said the South China Sea has turned into one of those regions “where NATO is no averse,” as the military bloc “once did in Ukraine, to escalating tensions.”

China claims sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The waters are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

“We know how seriously China takes such provocations, not to mention Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait, and we understand that NATO's playing with fire in these regions carries threats and risks for the Russian Federation. It is as close to our shores and to our seas as Chinese territory,” Russia's top diplomat stated.

The United States, the most powerful member of NATO, routinely sends its warships and warplanes to the South China Sea to assert what it calls a right to freedom of navigation. On November 29, the Chinese military said it had chased away the USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser, after it "illegally intruded" into waters in the vicinity of the South China Sea's Spratly Islands.

The Spratly Islands, known as Nansha Islands in China, lie at the heart of the territorial dispute over the South China Sea.

MG