Russia blasts NATO drills

Moscow has been concerned with NATO military drills under the pretext of collective defense preparation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. NATO now resorts more often to holding drills, which are being conducted under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, Lavrov told a news briefing following his talks with his Estonian counterpart, Urmas Paet. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty declares that an armed attack against one or more of the bloc's members shall be considered as an attack against them all. Actually, NATO has been preparing itself to counter the "non-existing threats," the top Russian diplomat said, adding that such kind of thinking should exist only in the past. Meanwhile, Lavrov noted that he and Paet also discussed a U.S. plan of forming a global missile defense system. The Russian and Estonian foreign ministers signed a border treaty which had been put on hold for 23 years as a result of territorial disputes over two border towns.