MINSK, September 17. /TASS/. European armies are coming to understand the need for serious military contacts with Belarus to ease military-political tensions and restore trust, the Belarusian delegation said at a meeting of the Forum on Security Cooperation held at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna.
"We are becoming more and more convinced that military leaders in European nations are coming to the realization that they need full-fledged military contacts to ease military-political tensions and restore trust. Once again, we call on the participating states to show political will and return to building good-neighborly relations in the OSCE area, starting this process with a mutually respectful, equal and professional dialogue," BelTA news agency quoted the speech.
The diplomats also noted that the contacts between the Belarusian and Polish air defense duty services are a good example of professional and depoliticized cooperation to prevent dangerous military incidents.
"It is also noteworthy that on the eve of the Zapad 2025 exercise, amid a very tense atmosphere, the Polish armed forces took sensible and only correct actions, which resulted in active working contacts with the Belarusian side through the air defense duty services in connection with the nighttime mutual exchange of strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles between Russia and Ukraine. It is a pity that the political leadership of Poland, unlike its military colleagues, did not find the courage to publicly admit this fact, but again descended into baseless, formulaic accusations," the Belarusian delegation noted.
Zapad 2025 exercises
At the meeting, the diplomats also provided information about the Zapad 2025 exercises held in Belarus.
"Unfortunately, in response to the unprecedented openness of the Belarusian side, our neighbors used the Zapad 2025 exercise as an excuse to increase the number and scale of operational and combat training events near our borders. The Polish side has closed the border with Belarus altogether in connection with the Zapad 2025 drills and the alleged threats emanating from it," it said.
According to the speech, to eliminate any speculation around this military activity, reduce tension and restore trust in the region, Minsk has taken several steps to ensure maximum openness and transparency of the Zapad 2025 exercises.
"Although the member states of NATO and the European Union were invited to observe the exercise within the framework of the Vienna Document, this invitation was ignored. Referring to the instructions, the defense attaches of individual NATO member states accredited to the Belarusian Defense Ministry were also forced to abandon monitoring the stage of practical actions of the troops at the last moment," the diplomats said.
They also expressed gratitude to OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu for sending an observer from the Conflict Prevention Center of the organization's secretariat.
"The OSCE participating states also had every right to organize several inspection events on the territory of Belarus during the exercise, in accordance with the Vienna Document. Unfortunately, even those countries whose representatives regularly express concerns about military activities on our territory have not used this right. We see this as a missed opportunity. If you want to resolve concerns in the military sphere, you need to resume contacts and dialogue on the military line," the Belarusian delegation said.