VIENNA, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's proposal for a new European security treaty is not aimed against NATO or other organizations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev put forward the European security initiative in July 2008.
He said a new security treaty should be based on such principles as respect for national sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of signatories, the non-use of force, and equal security.
"The Russian proposal is not designed to undermine NATO or other [international] security organizations. Quite the contrary, we are committed to closer coordination between existing international structures ... so that they all work together against common threats," Lavrov said.
He said "a narrow group approach" toward global threats and challenges was a serious flaw in the existing security system.
And he added that the lack of trust between countries could cause an escalation in ethnic and religious conflicts, and lead to open war in the case of some frozen conflicts.
