MOSCOW. Jan 20 (Interfax) - The geopolitical ambitions of some countries are destabilizing the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said.
"One can now say with confidence that the Asia-Pacific region is a center of global development, the driving force of the global economy. At the same time, with all positive tendencies, the geopolitical ambitions of some states and their fight for regional leadership are having a destabilizing influence on the development of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region," Fomin said in an interview with RT.
"These countries are literally forcing their rules, their way of setting the region in order, they are creating division lines," Fomin said.
To counterbalance that, a connecting role in ensuring peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region is played by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) and its Dialogue Partners, a mechanism of interaction between the defense agencies of 18 countries created within its framework, he said.