MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) Belarus and China are allowed to pursue an enhanced military partnership if they choose to do so, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.
"Regarding the cooperation between Belarus and China, as [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko has raised. We and Belarus are allies, we have very close military cooperation, common military planning, we have a lot of projects in the military development sphere. But there are no bans on military cooperation with China," Lavrov stated after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
The foreign minister added that Russia has concluded a range of military cooperation agreements with several other states, although any deal must not threaten the region's collective security.
"Russia also has joint military projects with foreign countries. The main thing is that we never take a path that could create risks for our Union State [Russia and Belarus], for our military interests and the security interests of Russia and Belarus. I am convinced that our Belarusian colleagues act in the same way," Lavrov remarked.
Lukashenko this past week visited a missile test site located near Minsk and announced that the country was now assembling Chinese missiles that have a range of up to 300 kilometers (187 miles).
The Belarusian leader accused Moscow of being unwilling to work on the project and offer the use of missile ranges, although an informed source told Sputnik on Friday that Russia has no ranges suitable for the testing of these missiles.
