MINSK. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Militarization of NATO's eastern flank poses a serious threat to the national security of Belarus, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said.
"The accelerating militarization of NATO's eastern flank constitutes a serious threat to the national security of Belarus. Additional contingents and hardware are being deployed to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, not to mention the construction of walls along the Belarusian border," the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's press service quoted Aleinik as saying at a ministry board meeting in Minsk on Wednesday, summing up results of the ministry's work of last year.
The new realities are "not just a ground for fight for survival" but also a window of opportunity, a time "for rethinking priorities, and an impetus for the opening of new anchor points and niches for interaction on the global stage," he said.
He noted further deepening of the strategic relations with Russia, partners in the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and China.
"In 2022, we managed to significantly move forward in the development of strategic allied relations with the Russian Federation and deepen integration in the Union State. Within the EAEU and the CIS, the focused was on consolidating positions of the member states in mitigating the pressure from sanctions and creating conditions for boosting trade and economic cooperation, including that in the bilateral format. In the CSTO, we drafted a clear program of our presidency of the organization in 2023 and are doing everything we can to implement the priorities defined by the head of state for this area," Aleinik said.
"The active work with the 'remote arc' states has never stopped. It has delivered the anticipated result. Especially, we can see that in the case of China, the relations with which have been elevated to the level of all-weather, comprehensive strategic partnership. We are promoting a positive agenda with India, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Zimbabwe and other countries," he said.