Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Tuesday that "after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, NATO seeks to redeploy forces to Central, South, and Southeast Asia and to direct flows of Afghan refugees there."

His statement was during a meeting of foreign ministers in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), in which Lavrov noted there are "targeted attempts to 'heat up' the situation and undermine the existing mechanisms of interstate interaction. Narrow-format structures of exclusive composition and military blocs sticking to Cold War logic and containment policy are making their contribution."

Russian-NATO relations have been tense as of late, due to the military alliance reinforcing its presence near the Russian border, which Moscow considers a breach of the document governing relations with the alliance.

In July, Moscow warned Washington of deploying troops that withdrew from Afghanistan in Russia-allied Central Asian countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 1 that the United States was in Afghanistan for 20 years and achieved a "zero result."

At the time, Lavrov said that after the US and NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan, the main thing for Russia is to maintain its allies' border security.