Lukashenko calls to strengthen CSTO’s peacekeeping capacity

We need to build up the peacekeeping capacity of the CSTO, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a special session of the CSTO Collective Security Council on 10 January….

“We are facing serious challenges in the future. Therefore, we need to reinforce the CSTO. We need to work, in a calm and systemic manner, to build up all its components and, above all, the peacekeeping capacity. It is very important that we maintain mobility and efficiency of actions,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

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Lukashenko calls to strengthen CSTO’s peacekeeping capacity

We need to build up the peacekeeping capacity of the CSTO, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a special session of the CSTO Collective Security Council on 10 January….

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon had previously repeatedly mentioned the risks and threats associated with the setting up of sleeper cells of terrorists and extremists in the Central Asian region

“We took note of this, but probably underestimated the risks. We probably thought that this problem would blow away. Now we see that professional terrorist fighters made the backbone of the protesters in Kazakhstan. This is a very dangerous trend,” the head of state emphasized.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the decision to deploy collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan was prompt and efficient . “I am sure that our efforts had a sobering effect on the destructive elements. The whole world saw our close allied ties, efficient and capacities of the organization,” the president said.

“We are facing serious challenges in the future. Therefore, we need to reinforce the CSTO. We need to build up all its components and, above all, the peacekeeping capacity. It is very important that we maintain mobility and efficiency of actions,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko urged not to heed to the opinion of the West or its individual states. “We need to deal with our own issues and our own security,” the Belarusian leader stressed. “When the West encounters the slightest problems, they do not think about democracy, do not look back at us, but act in accordance with their own interests. We also need to act like that. We acted tough from the first minutes, we got the result.”

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Lukashenko: Analysis of the events in Kazakhstan shows presence of external factor

“The analysis of the events in Kazakhstan shows the presence of an external factor, of course. Their scenario is recognizable, as the Kazakhstan president has just said. One need not go far to find analogies: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan. Not so long ago Belarus went through a similar combined pressure,” said [Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko].

“We talk a lot about outside interference now. The president of Kazakhstan is right: the names, addresses, other information of those figures will be named soon. It is necessary to understand one thing though: the external factor will never be the only one. Behind all the external factors it is necessary to see the internal ones. This is a lesson that we have learned from the events in Belarus,” the head of state said.

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CSTO urged to step up political interaction

It is necessary to increase the level of political interaction in the CSTO, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a special session of the CSTO Collective Security Council on 10 January….

“Today, more than ever we need to step up the level of political interaction in the CSTO. There is also a need for closer coordination of our positions in the international arena. Forms and methods of exerting hybrid influence on our countries are improving. Within the framework of the CSTO, we need to develop adequate response measures, as I have already said, without regard to the opinion of others,” the Belarusian leader said.