Lavrov pointed to NATO's desire to promote its infrastructure to the East.

The North Atlantic Alliance is actively promoting its infrastructure to the East. This is evidenced by the desire to provide assistance to Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on July 15 at a press conference following a meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, answering a question from Izvestia correspondent Nikolai Ivanov.

According to him, NATO has been hatching such plans for many years, creating nuclear-armed alliances in the regions of Southeast and Northeast Asia.

"All this is accompanied by the advancement of NATO's infrastructure to the East, including in such dangerous forms as the transfer of ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles to the Philippines, which were previously prohibited by the Russian-American treaty. This is a very, very serious weapon that will appear for the first time in Southeast Asia," Lavrov said.

The North Atlantic Alliance wanted to absorb Ukraine, he explained, and pretends that it will definitely bring the matter to an end.

"And in parallel with how they use Ukraine as the tip of their attacks against Russia, although less and less noticeable, they are also moving eastward," the minister said.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that speculation around Taiwan is increasing.

"Not so long ago, when the logic that I have just outlined, one of the journalists brought it to the attention of the President [of France Emmanuel] According to Macron, he stated something like this: "NATO will not interfere in Asian affairs if China takes care that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea does not interfere in European affairs." How do you like it? Well, if the same Macron allows Russia to take control of part of Ukraine, then what can happen to Taiwan? These are frankly provocative statements," Lavrov said.

He added that the West continues to assure China that it follows the "one-China principle," but at the same time contacts Taiwan as an independent state and arms it.

Asian shooting range: Taiwan has begun working out a scenario of a full-scale war with China

More than 22,000 reservists will take part in the exercises.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China opposes any official contacts between Taiwan and the United States. The diplomat noted that the American side should be aware of the high degree of sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and respect the "one China" principle.