Due to the policies of NATO countries in Belarus, they thought about whether it was worth inviting foreign observers to military exercises in the country. This was announced today, September 18, by the head of the Department of International Military Cooperation — Assistant Minister of Defense for International Military Cooperation Valery Revenko.
"The Vienna Document of 2011 on confidence- and security-building measures, as well as the existing regional agreements of Belarus with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland contains the necessary tools that, if desired by our Western colleagues, could already be used today to gradually return to a substantive dialogue on security issues in the region. Restoring trust is impossible without practical action. Such actions are necessary primarily in relation to operational and combat training activities, the intensity and scale of which have increased significantly," he said.
According to him, in the spring of 2024, a series of multinational exercises "Defender" took place in Europe, but representatives of Belarus were not invited, despite the fact that the number of participants in the exercises exceeded 13 thousand people, which was a gross violation of the provisions of the Vienna Document. Belarusian representatives were also not invited to the multinational tactical exercise "Nameis" currently underway.
"A logical question arises: should Belarus continue the practice of inviting foreign observers when large-scale operational and combat training events will take place on our territory? We hope that an objective assessment of the possibilities of the Vienna Document, regional confidence and security measures will allow both the states bordering Belarus and other countries to make the only right decision and return to a pragmatic dialogue. We are confident that many acute issues related to the activities of the armed forces in general and in the border areas in particular will be resolved," Revenko stressed.
It should be recalled that Minsk has repeatedly stated about the aggressive policy of NATO countries towards the republic. At the same time, the Belarusian side has always expressed readiness for a constructive dialogue.