Foreign Ministry: preparations for Allied Resolve are extremely transparent
Preparations for the Allied Resolve 2022 exercise are conducted as transparently as possible – as stated by Belarus’ Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Aleinik, BelTA reports
Mr. Aleinik’s address to participants of the Collective Security in a New Era: Experience and Prospects of the CSTO conference – held today at the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry – was read out by Belarus’ Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to the CSTO, Vyacheslav Remenchik.
Mr. Aleinik stated that NATO forces and assets are being built up on Belarus’ western borders and the military infrastructure is being modernised. The intensity and scale of operational and combat training activities of the alliance’s member states on the European continent are enhancing. “Over the past year, the number of exercises of the coalition forces of the alliance’s members has more than tripled,” he noted.
"At the same time, Belarus – like our Russian allies – is being accused of escalating the tension in the region. A nervous reaction of the West, primarily of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States that are bordering us, to the Russia-Belarus Allied Resolve 2022 exercise which will begin on February 10th on our territory is a recent example. Preparations for the drill are held as transparently as possible. They are widely covered by the Belarusian and Russian defence ministries and the mass media. At the same time, European societies are continued to be frightened by every joint Belarusian-Russian exercise – deliberately forgetting that, after each drill, all troops return back to their permanent deployment points in Belarus and Russia," Mr. Aleinik stressed.
"Who benefits from this provocative rhetoric aimed at whipping up tension and escalating the situation in the region? Those who want to use the ‘Russian threat’ to obtain additional funds, primarily from the United States, for weapons and equipment, and also to create new military bases on their territory. Will it strengthen their own security and European security in general? I think this is a rhetorical question. This is a zero-sum game," Belarus’ Deputy Foreign Minister summed up.
