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NATO’s Agile Spirit drills in Georgia in the South Caucasus is a concern for Russia and Moscow is keeping a close watch on them and will take all necessary measures to ensure its interests, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Friday, TASS reported.

"We see that the number of NATO drills has actually increased in recent years and many of them have an anti-Russian bias. Considering NATO’s general military planning, which is increasingly being focused on warding off the so-called threat from the East, such drills cannot but cause our legitimate concern," the senior Russian diplomat said in response to the corresponding question.

"Naturally, we are closely following them [NATO’s Agile Spirit drills in Georgia] and will take all necessary measures, including military-technical efforts, to reliably protect our interests," he pointed out.

The Agile Spirit 2021 drills with the participation of 12 NATO member states and also Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine kicked off on July 26. The alliance’s drills involve over 2,500 troops from Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the United States, Turkey, Ukraine and Estonia. More than 1,500 troops are from Georgia and another 700 personnel are from the US.