MINSK, September 25. /TASS/. Countries neighboring Belarus are preparing for war, but Minsk is still open to cooperation with Poland on issues of regional security, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said.
He made the statement as Belarus is holding major military exercises.
"Our neighbors use every relevant piece of news to build up battlegroups near our borders. We see that the intensity of operational and combat training is growing, and infrastructure is being developed. The military and political situation is not easy. In the language of intelligence officers, it sounds like this: 'Measures are being taken to prepare for war,'" The Defense Ministry's press service quoted Khrenin as saying
The minister said that Minsk still continues to demonstrate its openness, for example, by having offered Warsaw to send its observers to the exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization that were held in Belarus from September 1 to 6.
"And we are still ready to engage with the Polish military as part of efforts to ensure security in our region," Khrenin said.
The minister said the integrated military exercises that Belarus is holding across various firing ranges and locations in the Brest, Grodno and Minsk regions from September 22 to 26 are not directed against other countries.
"We will continue to train, I emphasize it again, our armed forces. We are not conducting these exercises against anyone. It's a scheduled event, and no one should look for any conspiracies here," he said.
Khrenin said the scenario that had been picked for the drills - a bilateral integrated exercise - is one of the most challenging in terms of troop training.
"This is the pinnacle of military training and is considered to be one of the most challenging types, both for the exercise commanders and the training force. It has a number of distinctive features. Firstly, it puts minimal constraints on the troops. Secondly, the exercise takes place not at their usual ranges, but on real-life terrain in three regions of our country. The third feature is that we’ll use this exercise to test new forms and methods of utilizing armed forces, managing armed forces, based on the experience gained from armed conflicts and, of course, the special military operation," Khrenin said.
"The exercise, in addition to testing things out, will be used for fact-finding. After examination, we will check how those novelties or changes apply in real life situations and how they can be used by the armed forces," the minister went on to say.