MINSK. Feb 15 (Interfax) - The Belarusian and Ukrainian defense ministers discussed some sensitive issues and agreed to continue dialogue during their telephone call on Monday, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said after supervising the launches of Tochka-U tactical missile systems during an exercise on Tuesday.
"We discussed a number of sensitive matters and talked about prospects for resuming military cooperation. We showed each other that we are open to dialogue and decided that our dialogue will continue," the state-run news agency BelTA quoted Khrenin as saying.
"I perfectly understand that you would like to have more information, but the Ukrainian defense minister and I agreed on a parity basis that we would be giving it incrementally. Indeed, the Ukrainian defense minister initiated this conversation, and I certainly supported this initiative so as to ease some tension, which, as we see, still exists both because of the ongoing exercises and the military-political situation surrounding our countries in general," Khrenin said.
The Ukrainian defense minister called his Belarusian counterpart on Monday. The parties discussed military cooperation, confidence and security building in the region, some sore points existing between the two countries, and the ongoing military exercises.
Russia and Belarus are conducting a preparedness check of the Union State's rapid response forces. Troops were redeployed and a contingent was formed at the first stage, which ended on February 9, and the Union Resolve 2022 exercise is taking place at the second stage, between February 10 and February 20.
The exercise involves Belarusian forces and units of the Russian Eastern Military District, Aerospace Forces and Airborne Forces. S-400 Triumph long-range air defense missile systems, Pantsir-S short-range air defense missile systems, Sukhoi Su-35 fourth-generation multirole fighter jets, and Su-25SM attack planes were deployed from Russia to Belarus.
The exercise is taking place at several locations across Belarus: four training ranges (Obuz Lesnovsky, Osipovichi, Brest, and Gozha), several terrains and four airfields (Baranovichi, Luninets, Lida, and Machulishchi).
The exercise is underway amidst a crisis in Russia-NATO relations. The United States, other NATO countries and Ukraine have claimed that a concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border indicates the threat of Russian invasion.
The Belarusian General Staff has said that the Russian troops would leave the country when the exercise is over.