Kazakhstan invited to participate in Belarusian-Russian army exercise Zapad 2021

Official negotiations between Belarusian Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Viktor Khrenin and First Deputy Defense Minister, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan, Lieutenant-General Murat Bektanov took place in Minsk, representatives of the Defense Ministry told BelTA.

During the meeting Viktor Khrenin mentioned the commonality of views on challenges and threats in the Eastern Europe collective security region and the Central Asia one. He praised the level of Belarus-Kazakhstan military cooperation and invited a Kazakh contingent to participate in the Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad 2021 [West 2021].

As part of the official visit Murat Bektanov also met with Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus, Major-General Viktor Gulevich.

The sides discussed the current state of Belarus-Kazakhstan military cooperation and outlined ways to intensify it in areas of mutual interest.

Close attention was paid to increasing the number of and the quality of joint combat training events, to expanding the choice of specializations Kazakh specialists are taught in Belarusian military education institutions. The need to share the best practices concerning the patriotic upbringing of the youth was mentioned.