Russia values its staunch alliance with Belarus amid mounting pressure from the West and appreciates Minsk's determination to resist the antagonistic political line of the United States and its partners, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Saturday
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2022) Russia values its staunch alliance with Belarus amid mounting pressure from the West and appreciates Minsk's determination to resist the antagonistic political line of the United States and its partners, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Shoigu arrived in Belarus to meet with his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, and discuss pressing matters pertaining to bilateral military cooperation. The defense chiefs of Russia and Belarus signed a protocol to a 1997 bilateral agreement on the joint provision of regional security.
"The Republic of Belarus has been and remains our trusted partner. This is especially important today, under unprecedented pressure of the collective West and the undeclared war against our countries," Shoigu said during negotiations with Khrenin.
Shoigu extolled Belarus' resolve to "counter the hostile course of the US and its allies" as well as its willingness to jointly ensure the military security of the Union State.
Belarus is currently hosting combat readiness exercises involving Russian and Belarusian troops comprising a joint regional military group, Shoigu said.
On October 10, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk and Moscow agreed on deploying a joint military group as the security situation was declining on the western border of the Union State, a supranational union between Belarus and Russian founded in 2000.
