Aleksandr Lukashenko: CSTO should be proactive, improve information exchange and analytical component of the Organization’s work

Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, delivered a speech at an extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council and spoke of the lessons taught by the events in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“The analysis of the events in Kazakhstan shows, of course, the presence of an external factor,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko at an extraordinary meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council. “Their scenario is recognizable, as the President of Kazakhstan has just said. One need not go far to find similar examples: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan; not so long ago, Belarus also experienced a similar combined onslaught.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that the external factor will never be the only one, and all external factors should not obscure the internal ones. “This is the lesson we have learnt from the events in Belarus. One should understand that Kazakhstan, a nation and state close to us, is surrounded by too many people willing to blow up the situation around the Central Asian post-Soviet republics. Quite recently, Afghanistan has been added to the list,” recalled Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The President of the Republic of Belarus recalled the risks and threats connected with the creation of terrorist sleeper cells in the Central Asian region, which may wake up one day, as distinguished Emomali Rahmon repeatedly said, stressed Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Based on this lesson, we need to improve both the CSTO controllability and the forces we are ready to deploy. Serious challenges await us in the future. It is necessary to strengthen the CSTO and to calmly and systematically build up all its components, above all its peacekeeping potential. It is very important to maintain the mobility and swiftness of actions, and one should not be too shy in this regard, figuratively speaking, looking towards an abstract West, America, or some other states. If we look around too fast, we will break our necks. So we have to deal with our own issues and see to our own security. When they have a tiniest problem, they do not think about democracy, they do not mind us but act according to their own interests. We should also take this into account. Tough swift actions yield immediate results.
“We must follow the situation and be proactive in handling possible consequences,” stressed Aleksandr Lukashenko.
According to the President of Belarus, the Organization needs to raise the level of political interaction and coordination of positions in the international arena.
“The forms and methods of hybrid influence on our countries are being qualitatively improved. Within the CSTO framework it is necessary to work out adequate response measures, as I said before, without looking back. Information exchange and analytical component should be improved qualitatively,” remarked the President of the Republic of Belarus.