Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Sunday that the East Asia and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN/EAS) Summit will end without a joint communiqué with the United States because of the «unacceptable language» raised over the war in Ukraine.
«The United States has insisted on absolutely unacceptable language as far as this situation is concerned,» Lavrov told the media during the meeting being held in Cambodia, to which the US and Russia are invited as members of the group’s regional forum.
«For this reason, no collective decision is going to be taken,» the Russian foreign minister added in comments picked up by the TASS agency on a war that Russia officially describes as a «special operation» while Ukraine and its allies directly use the term «invasion.»
Lavrov also denounced a «clear trend of militarization» in Southeast Asia «through the coordination of the efforts of local US allies such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan with NATO enlargement».
