Belarus considers Russia-led bloc as 'guarantor' of int'l, regional security

Belarus said on Wednesday that it considered the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led security bloc, as a "guarantor" of international and regional security.

"Belarus views the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a guarantor of international and regional security, stability, as well as the collective protection of the independence and territorial integrity and sovereignty of the CSTO member states," Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin told a meeting of the heads of international military cooperation units of the armed forces of the CSTO member states, state news agency Belta reported.

The report said Khrenin noted that he is convinced the event at the Belarusian capital Minsk provided an opportunity to establish closer contacts between the units of the militaries of the CSTO member states.

"It will also make it possible to discuss existing problems both on the internal and external levels and to consider ways to solve them using the potential of the CSTO," Khrenin said, according to the report.

He also said it is important to develop common approaches aimed at the development and strengthening of the military component of the alliance, further saying that both the CSTO and its member states have faced unprecedented pressure in recent times.

"We have all become witnesses to the incessant intensive, foreign policy demarches on the part of Western countries, led by the United States, aimed at promoting their own models of the world order, including in the post-Soviet states," he added, the report concluded.

The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance founded in 1992 and consists of six former Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.