Opinion: key task of CSTO military component is to always be ready to repel military aggression

The leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) member states will gather in Minsk for a summit soon. As part of its current presidency, Belarus faces the most important tasks: to strengthen and adapt the organisation to modern realities. Aleksandr Markevich, the Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, shared his views on the CSTO activity.

“Taking into consideration the ongoing global turbulence, increasing challenges and potential threats to security in the CSTO area of activity, the need for peacekeeping forces and collective rapid response forces of the CSTO member states is increasing. The conducted exercises simulate potential crisis situations, and possible options for their resolution are being worked out. At the same time, the practical training of the forces involved increases, problematic issues are clarified and then these issues are resolved point-by-point in a short time, including by using the mechanism of model legislation within the framework of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. After all, the main task of the CSTO military component is to be always ready to repel military aggression, to conduct special operations to combat international terrorism, extremism, transnational organised crime and drug trafficking, as well as to eliminate the consequences of emergency situations,” Mr. Markevich said.