Oleg Belokonev: parliamentarians provide the legal basis for the CSTO peacekeeping

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Oleg Belokonev, Chairman of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, is convinced that the task of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States’ parliamentarians is to provide a legal basis for peacekeeping activities within the CSTO.

“What we see here, at the exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Collective Peacekeeping Forces, is important,” Oleg Belokonev emphasizes.

The sharing of experience of units that took part in peacekeeping operations is extremely important. “There are countries that have relevant units and combat experience of peacekeeping operations, and there are countries that have no such experience, and access to unique methods of such units, especially if they have combat experience, is relevant and necessary,” said Oleg Belokonev.

In his opinion, real experience of carrying out peacekeeping operations is relevant primarily for “the countries that currently have no possibility of getting such experience within the system of training troops.”

The Chairman of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus noted that the fact that the issue of establishing a peacekeeping contingent within the framework of the CSTO has been raised at the UN is important. However, the issue is not being resolved “as fast as we would like it to.” However, Oleg Belokonev is rather optimistic: with Mr Lacroix (UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations) helping CSTO in this area, the issue will be resolved.

Oleg Belokonev believes that parliamentarians cannot stay aside either from legislative support of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces, or from organization of peacekeeping activities, because “these are the operations that currently guarantee peace and prevent an outbreak of war.”

As for the participation of the contingent of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Belarus in Unbreakable Brotherhood 2021, Oleg Belokonev was evidently proud of the praise of the preparation of the Belarusian peacekeeping contingent given by Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin, commander of the troops of the Central Military District of the Russian Ministry of Defence and head of the exercise.

“We passed all inspections, including by the United Nations; yes, we do not have combat experience, but we piece together the information from various countries, primarily the CSTO States,” notes the Chairman of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, “and we work quite closely with Russian peacekeeping 15th and 31st Ulyanovsk brigades, and very often we perform joint missions at such operational training exercises as this one.”

Speaking about the peacekeeping contingent of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Belokonev mentioned one more important factor contributing to close interaction. “The most important thing is that there is no language barrier between us, we have no difficulties in the organization of a control system or data exchange.” “We work in the same way, as it was shown during today’s exercise: using digital resources and appropriate protocols,” he stressed.