At the International Security Forum in Moscow, Belarus put forward a number of proposals to strengthen stability

On November 10, the delegation of the Republic of Belarus took part in the International Collective Security Forum, as well as in a joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils.

On the eve of the meeting, Alexander Wolfovich and Viktor Khrenin visited the exhibition. The delegation included the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Alexander Wolfovich, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin and Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov. On the eve of the meeting of the International Collective Security Forum, Alexander Volfovich and Viktor Khrenin got acquainted with the exhibition exposition demonstrating best practices in the main areas of the CSTO activities. Its important part is occupied by technologies and air defense systems. Taking into account the fact that in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus the academic year 2026/27 was declared the Year of Improvement of the Unmanned Aircraft Combat System, the Belarusian delegation paid special attention to this direction of the exhibition.

- We are actively monitoring the situation (in the field of UAV development). First of all, the experience of a special military operation in Ukraine. And we see how rapidly the forms and methods of warfare are changing. To date, in terms of numbers, more than 70 percent, and even 80 percent of the degree of fire damage took unmanned aerial vehicles. Therefore, this topic is very relevant today. We watch it very much, we study it. First of all, this is the experience of our Russian colleagues, the Belarusian Defense Minister said. Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov addressed the forum participants with a speech in which he outlined the position of the republic on the topic of world security:

- The first of the most important issues in the context of global challenges posed by Western countries is the erosion of international law and the crisis of universal multilateral UN institutions, which were designed to ensure collective security. But today we see instead the encouragement of actions representing the right of the strong in resolving any interstate issues, he said.

The second problem of our time is the destruction of military and political tools at the regional and global level

- There are no functioning arms control mechanisms at all. The situation also creates conditions for the spiral of the arms race – this is evident along the perimeter of our border, how qualitatively and on a large scale our (Western) arms are. - The neighbors. The Minister suggested that the International Forum for Collective Security will be able to work out the issue of the legal vacuum in this area and offer solutions to the problem.

Belarus considers the militarization of the digital space and critical technologies to be another challenge to stability. Information and communication platforms and artificial intelligence technologies are increasingly used not for creation, but as means of information warfare, said Maxim Ryzhenkov: How to ensure collective security against the background of rapid digital changes is a task with an asterisk for our experts. And the answer to such questions can be ideas like China’s proposal to create an organization in which such problems are paid close attention. The main idea promoted by Belarus in the field of collective security is to develop a way to bring the positions of states closer together in order to act as a united front and support each other more. This was also discussed at a joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils. The Belarusian side came up with a number of initiatives to ensure security on the continent: military cooperation, foreign policy coordination, regional connectivity, countering hybrid threats, strengthening parliamentary cooperation and building up the analytical component of the organization. As noted by the State Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Wolfovich, the focus was also on the issue of coordinating the package of documents submitted on November 11 for consideration by the heads of state of the organization. “All participants of the meeting noted that the CSTO remains a significant factor in ensuring regional security and stability,” Alexander Volfovich stressed. As for the internal agenda of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, it was primarily about improving the structure of the Joint Staff of the organization, improving the structure of the collective rapid response system. A number of adopted documents are aimed at improving the quality of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force.

korotkin@sb.by