Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Dushanbe

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In his speech, the President, among other things touched upon the situation at the western borders of the CSTO. He pointed out that it was worsening, and the trend was dangerous:

(soundbite)

The USA is increasing its military presence in Eastern Europe, the NATO coalition is set to intensify its military build-up. This year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization conducted a series of drills in the Baltics and Ukraine. Over the last five years alone, their number more than doubled to reach 90 large-scale exercises a year, while the number of troops involved rose from 60,000 to 110,000 military.

All this creates conditions for military provocations and incidents at our borders. At the same time, our neighbors - the Baltic Sea countries, Poland and Ukraine - respond very nervously to the Belarus-Russia routine military exercise Zapad 2021. This drill has nearly drawn to a close, while these countries keep lamenting about it throughout the world, although this exercise is purely defensive in nature.

He also noted that the exercise was widely covered in the media, international observers are always invited to attend.

As reported by the Belarusian Defense Ministry, foreign military observers representing Lithuania and the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center participated in observing the Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021. The event was voluntarily organized by Belarus in line with the 2011 Vienna Document on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures.

The military observers were informed about the concept of the exercise, tasks and stages of the exercise and have an opportunity to go to the military training area Obuz-Lesnovsky and watch practical actions of the troops.