‘At 74, time is ripe for NATO to retire,’ says Russian Foreign Ministry day after bloc’s foreign ministers met

Moscow: The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday claimed that instead of Russia being a threat for its neighbours in the region after its unilateral invasion of Ukraine, it was the other way round and NATO and its allies were gradually inching towards Russian borders with Finland joining the influential US-led grouping earlier this week. The ministry said NATO is trying to make the world a more dangerous place to live in and in the process it is resisting the emergence of alternative centres of power and increasingly asserting its global role. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, “The time is finally ripe for the alliance to retire,” adding that the NATO’s ambition to spread its influence beyond the Euro-Atlantic area was turning out to be a dangerous thing. Zakharova’s comments came soon after the meeting of the NATO foreign ministers held a day earlier to mark the alliance’s 74th anniversary. “We hear the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speculate ever more often about a global role of the alliance. Everything is being done to make the world even more dangerous, to prevent the existence of alternative centres of power capable of undermining the hegemony of the West,” she said. “In general, one can state with certainty that security and NATO are incompatible. There is only one conclusion that readily offers itself - at 74 years of age it is time for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to retire,” Zakharova said in a statement that the Russian Foreign Ministry released on Thursday. She further added that Russia believes that NATO is trying to “usurp the entire system of European security through Finland’s recent accession.” Giving up its neutrality, Finland on Wednesday became the influential bloc’s 31st member. Sweden too is waiting in the pipeline to join the bloc soon. “Finland has become another victim of the North Atlantic Alliance. The Finnish government decided to give up its longstanding neutrality in exchange for turning the country into a frontline zone, a bridgehead for deterring Russia in the Northwest. As we can see, NATO does not intend to stop there,” Zakharova said. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.