MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Strategic partnership between the Russian and Belarusian special services is characterized by an exceptional level of cooperation, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with National Defense magazine.

"The special relations and trust between our Service [Foreign Intelligence] and the Committee [State Security Committee of Belarus] are characterized by strategic partnership and an exceptional level of interaction. On a scheduled basis, contacts are carried out at the level of their chiefs. Working meetings are held at the expert level to adjust priorities within the framework of the tasks facing our agencies to protect the interests of Russia and Belarus, as well as to ward off and respond to emerging new threats to the security of the Union State in a timely manner," Naryshkin said.

According to the SVR director, regular joint meetings of the boards of the SVR of Russia and the KGB of Belarus are the most effective tool for building up joint work.

"Cooperation between Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and Belarus’ State Security Committee is developing successfully and steadily and on a wide range of areas in the interests of our countries and meets with the full understanding of and support from the heads of our countries," he emphasized.

"I would like to note that this cooperation stems not only from common historical roots and values, but also from the unbreakable brotherhood of the peoples of Russia and Belarus. Our blood kinship is something more than just cultural and civilizational unity. It is about the blood we shed together on the battlefields of the most brutal and deadly war in our common history - the Great Patriotic War," Naryshkin said.

The SVR director pointed out that the entire period of cooperation between the special services of Russia and Belarus had clearly demonstrated the similarity of the two countries' approaches to political, economic and military-strategic spheres.

"Undoubtedly, the invariably friendly relations between Moscow and Minsk firmly cement our interaction. Looking back on the history of our fruitful cooperation, we can confidently discuss the prospects for its further practical fulfillment in the interests of security of Russia and Belarus," he said.

Naryshkin stressed that amid the unfriendly and aggressive policies of the United States and its satellites towards Russia and Belarus and the unprecedented pressure by the collective West on Moscow and Minsk, "it is of particular importance for the SVR and the KGB to further increase the efficiency and improve bilateral cooperation in order to timely respond to multiplying modern challenges."