ISTANBUL

Russia’s foreign minister on Monday said that his country has no intention of attacking NATO countries, reiterating comments made by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday in response to remarks made by US President Joe Biden earlier this month.

“He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) said that this is nonsense and everyone, including President Biden, is well aware that Russia has no such plans, that we do not have any territorial disputes with NATO countries. In general, we no longer have territorial disputes with anyone, including Japan,” Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Channel One TV channel.

According to Lavrov, it was the West that broke off relations with Russia and Moscow never sought to break off ties.

“It was they who broke off relations with us, they made us either an adversary, or now an enemy. We never sought to break off these relationships," Lavrov said, arguing that such statements speak of the “very desperate situation" on the part of Washington.

During an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel released on Sunday, Putin described as “complete nonsense” Biden’s comments that Moscow is allegedly intending to attack NATO countries.

He said that Biden made the comments to “justify his erroneous policy” against the country.