Lukashenko spoke in favour of strengthening the CSTO military component
At the Yerevan summit, the President of Belarus spoke in favour of strengthening the military component of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, and this direction is among the priorities of the Belarusian chairmanship for 2023, BelTA reports
"The CSTO military component is integral for the organisation, and the latter was actually created with view of it twenty years ago. We see an increase in the readiness of the components of the CSTO troops to perform their intended tasks and strengthening of military-technical co-operation of the member states as the priority tasks in this sphere,” the Belarusian leader said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that successful fulfilment of the tasks set by the CSTO troops is due to their comprehensive training, modern weapons and special equipment. "You know, it is a shame to even talk about it. This problem must be solved once and for all within a year – to chip in together (not much money is needed) and provide our guys who are involved into peacekeeping and other missions with weapons, also showing that we can support our military not worse than NATO states,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
For these purposes, a number of joint exercises will be planned and conducted on the territory of Belarus together with management bodies and formations of the forces and means of the CSTO collective security system in 2023. As noted by the Head of State, the development of the coalition military-technical component largely depends on the implementation of a co-ordinated military–technical policy by the organisation’s member states.
"We have accumulated serious experience with the Russian Federation (there would be no fortune, but misfortune helped) on the intensification of military-technical co-operation and creation of conventional and advanced weapons systems. Get involved, you are not strangers," the President suggested.
The Belarusian chairmanship intends to pay special attention to the intensification of efforts to elaborate common approaches in the field of standardisation and cataloguing of defence products and development of industrial co-operation in production of promising military products. "We are already doing this now in co-operation with Russia. All this should ensure the joint development and production of modern weapons and military equipment in the future," the Belarusian leader said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that, as the conflict in Ukraine can show, it is no need to neglect old models of weapons. "Grad, Tornado, Hurricane and other [multiple launch rocket systems] are quite good weapons,” he noted.
