Lavrov: attempts to force Georgia into NATO will violate the "red line"

Attempts to bring Georgia into NATO by force will be perceived by the Russian side as a violation of the "red line", Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today at a press conference.

The diplomat clarified that during the negotiations with the foreign ministers of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, no hypothetical scenarios were discussed, including those related to attempts to force Georgia into into the North Atlantic Alliance, contrary to the will of a large part of its people.

"Our position on NATO expansion is well known: it will be a red line if the alliance continues to move closer and closer to the Russian Federation's borders", TASS quotes the Russian minister.

Lavrov explained that Russia's proposals on security guarantees, previously expressed in the context of common security in the entire Euro-Atlantic region, demonstrate that Moscow is genuinely interested in ensuring that events do not develop in a negative way according to scenarios that "some NATO strategists" come up with.