国际英语新闻:Russian FM calls NATO tension-maker

MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would create tensions with Moscow even if there was no Ukraine crisis.

"As you know, the NATO has not ceased to expand. It looks for the meaning to exist. Afghanistan helped for some time," Lavrov told Itar-Tass news agency.

Meanwhile, he said Afghanistan now "only weighs on NATO solidarity" as problems of drug production and traffic deteriorated.

The diplomat noted that, if not Ukraine, any other aspect of Russian domestic or foreign policy would be used as a reason for NATO speculation.

"We have seen it with Syria, when the West declared (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad can no more be considered a partner, while we said the regime should not be toppled, and negotiations are necessary," he said.

The minister added that "inertia and inability" to resist attempts to drive all Europeans under the NATO roof persisted.

Lavrov also called on the international community to send a humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine.

"Today I am forwarding an official address to the OSCE ( Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the Council of Europe, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the UN to provide humanitarian aid to Lugansk, Donetsk and neighboring towns," he said.

Russia has repeatedly warned of humanitarian disasters haunting in Ukraine, while the latter accused Moscow of facilitating separatists in the southeastern regions.