NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has assured the Russian Foreign Minister  Sergey Lavrov that the deployment of Patriot air-defense systems at the Turkish-Syrian border will serve only for defense purposes. The representative of the General Secretary Oana Lungescu wrote about this in her microblog, RBK reports.

As the press service of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports, on November 23, a telephone conversation between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and the General Secretary of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen was held.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen informed of the situation related to the call of Turkey to NATO to place on its territory Patriot surface-to-air missile. Lavrov confirmed Russia’s concerns over the plans to increase military capabilities in the region and a proposal to establish a direct link between Ankara and Damascus in order to avoid incidents, says the statement.

Earlier, Lavrov had expressed concern over the possible deployment of Patriot air-defense systems on the Turkish-Syrian border.