Russia is opposed to dividing SE Asia into blocs – Lavrov

Moscow is opposed to dividing Southeast Asia into blocs, a scenario envisaged by the Indo-Pacific strategy promoted by the US, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

“The Indo-Pacific strategies undermine the core role played by ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” he said in Bangkok. “Of course, they are not inclusive and imply the region’s division into blocs.”

After his meeting with Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, Lavrov told reporters that the erosion of the ASEAN agencies was underway, TASS said.

The Indo-Pacific regional concept was proposed by US President Donald Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam in 2017.