Kochanova on army’s readiness to defend the country at any moment

Today, there are no more pressing issues for the CSTO parliamentarians than the preservation of peace and tranquillity in our countries – as underlined by Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly Natalya Kochanova during a meeting with members of the Co-ordinating Meeting of the Chairpersons of Committees (Commissions) on Defence and Security of the Parliaments of the CSTO Member States under the CSTO PA Council

“It’s important for us to be together and to pursue a peaceful course. No signals will ever come from Belarus to unleash any military actions because it’s just not possible. Meanwhile, the situation is very difficult. You saw this while analysing the results of monitoring the military-political situation. I’m convinced that you gave an objective assessment of what’s happening. It needs to be heard by those who need to hear it, even if they don’t want to.”

Speaking about the importance of monitoring the military-political situation, the Chairperson of the Council of the Republic drew attention to the fact that agreements with the West are not always fulfilled. As an example, she cited the Minsk Agreements and statements by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the purpose of the agreements was to prepare for war, and not end the conflict.

Natalya Kochanova also focused on how the EU currently presents the topic of Belarus’ assistance to Donbass children, “Today they ‘convict’ us that we take away children from Ukraine. We are doing this so that they can recover and forget about the shots and bombings for at least a month, so that they can live in normal conditions! And everything is presented differently.”

Tomorrow, the parliamentarians are going to visit the CSTO exercise, which is currently being held in the Brest Region. In this regard, Natalya Kochanova noted the importance of holding such an event, “Like all other countries, we’ll do everything to ensure our security. Accordingly, we must have modern equipment and trained troops. Most importantly, our army must be ready at any moment to defend its country and its people – we remember the lessons of history.”

The Speaker of the Council of the Republic stressed the importance of preserving the memory of the common historical past, “We were born and raised with this. We must do everything to prevent it from repeating, no matter what it costs us.”