West Should Not be Alarmed About Routine CSTO Drill in Belarus — Lukashenko

"We will be drilling routine skills, scheduled long ago. So, there is no reason to be worried," the Belarusian leader specified

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Ilya Pitalev/POOL/TASS

© Ilya Pitalev/POOL/TASS

MINSK, August 25. /TASS/. There is no reason for the West to be concerned about the drills the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is holding in Belarus from September 1 through 16 because these are scheduled exercises, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday.

"They will be saying in the West that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Lukashenko are hatching something, plotting an attack on poor Poland. Nothing of the kind. No attacks. We will be drilling routine skills, scheduled long ago. So, there is no reason to be worried," the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.

He said that the West should not take these drills as a special signal. "Frankly speaking, I am unaware of the details of these drills. But in the current situation, in order not to fan tension, I would say that there is no combat component there. The drills will involve small units of several CSTO member states, which will hold staff exercise to drill the tactic and strategy for the future. So, they know about the drill as we have notified them," Lukashenko added.

The drills are envisioned as a joint exercise with the CSTO collective rapid reaction forces, dubbed Interaction-2023, formulating missions and tasks involving the application of the CSTO collective security system’s forces and equipment for settling a hypothetical crisis situation in the CSTO Eastern-European collective security region. Several special drills are planned under the aegis of the Combat Brotherhood-2023 exercise: Search-2023 will involve personnel and resources from CSTO member states’ military intelligence units; Echelon-2023 will use manpower and assets from CSTO (Collective Forces) military logistics units; and Barrier-2023 will involve a joint formation of the CSTO radiological, chemical and biological protection force and medical support units. Apart from that, its is planned to hold Rock 2023 drills with emergency ministry units. The final stage of the Combat Brotherhood drills will be the Indestructible Brotherhood 2023 peacekeepers’ drills in Kyrgyzstan.

Along with Belarus, which is holding presidency of the CSTO this year, the organization includes Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.