MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Chief of Russia’s General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov held a telephone conversation with his Belarusian counterpart Major-General Alexander Volfovich to discuss the prospects of bilateral military cooperation, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The chiefs of the General Staffs of the Russian and Belarusian Armed Forces discussed the state and the prospects of bilateral military cooperation and also the pace of preparations for the Slavic Brotherhood joint drills," the ministry said in a statement.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry reported earlier on Wednesday that the chiefs of the General Staffs from both countries had also discussed preparations for the Kavkaz-2020 strategic command and staff exercise that would run on the territory of Russia.

The Kavkaz-2020 (Caucasus-2020) command and staff drills will run in Russia’s south in September this year. There were plans to involve troops from six countries in the maneuvers, including member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). However, India’s Defense Ministry announced in late August that its troops would not participate in the drills, citing the pandemic and related difficulties, including logistics issues.

The Slavic Brotherhood drills traditionally involve troops from Russia, Serbia and Belarus. The maneuvers with the troops from the three countries were held for the first time in Russia in 2015. They were subsequently conducted in Serbia in November 2016 and in Belarus in June 2017. In 2018, the Slavic Brotherhood exercise was held in Russia again. Last year, the exercise took place on the territory of Serbia.