MOSCOW: Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a former defence minister, has warned that the risk of an armed clash between nuclear powers is growing, the state TASS news agency reported on Friday.

TASS cited Shoigu as saying that increasing geopolitical rivalry between large states on the world stage was raising the risk of such a clash.

Russia’s Sergei Shoigu meets North Korea’s Kim in Pyongyang

He was also quoted as accusing the NATO military alliance of increasing its activities close to the eastern flank of Russia and Belarus and of rehearsing offensive as well as defensive scenarios there.