Secretaries of CSTO Security Councils Meet in Minsk

On June 8, Minsk hosted a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils chaired by Aleksandr Volfovich, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus.

During the meeting, the sides discussed challenges and threats to the security of the CSTO Member States, as well as measures to address them, and reviewed about nine documents, in particular, the regulations on the regional anti-terrorist operation Naemnik.

Aleksander Volfovich, Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, said that the CSTO Member States would draw up a new concept of collective security until 2035.

Today, the secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils also met with Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus.

“The dialogue between our countries to strengthen collective security is now more relevant than ever,” said the Belarusian leader.

He also drew attention to the need to improve CSTO’s crisis response system.

“The Republic of Belarus continues the implementation of the priority activities within the framework of its 2023 CSTO presidency. Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus, met today with the secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils. It is an important event both for the Republic of Belarus and for the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The meeting focused on Organization’s consolidation and development. One of the most important matters was the need to improve the CSTO crisis response system. The President suggested that the heads of the Security Councils should begin work on introducing additions to the collective security concept that will be launched until 2035, because the current document was adopted in 2016 and runs until 2025. However, the threats and challenges the CSTO Member States face today have changed dramatically compared to 2016. This is why today’s meeting is extremely relevant,” said Sergei Rachkov, Chairman of the Standing Commission for International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus.