MINSK, September 15. /TASS/. Belarus does not rule out responding to military threats within the Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) by force, head of the International Military Cooperation Department of the Belarusian Defense Ministry Oleg Voinov stated.

"Among other things, we do not rule out reacting to direct military threats within the active agreements of the Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization by force in case of open military aggression against Belarus and an armed conflict," the defense ministry’s website quotes Voinov as saying.

He added that Minsk might "place a part of the regional armed forces unit on its territory near the Western border." "We can say that this is not due to the threat to the Union State from Poland or the Baltic States, this is due to the threat allegedly coming from countries located thousands of kilometers away," he pointed out.

Voinov noted that in this difficult situation, Belarus values the support of its partners, namely Russia and China, adding that their support "shows that the path chosen by our country and our people is the right one."