Lukashenko plays up military cooperation with Russia :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus and Russia have established really close cooperation in the military sphere, said Aleksandr Lukashenko on Wednesday while receiving Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Yury Baluyevsky.

The Russian officials had arrived in Minsk to attend a joint meeting of the boards of the two countries’ defense ministries. The gathering was to consider new joint military programs and steps to ensure the security of the Belarusian-Russian Union State.

“We can see what you are doing in the Russian Armed Forces, we like this and we are learning much,” official information sources quoted the Belarusian leader as saying.

“We are looking with a calm eye upon what is going wrong and what is going well in Russia," Mr. Lukashenko reportedly said. "If something suits us, we copy and borrow it. Thank you for keeping your experience open even in areas that seem to be flawed or where it is Russian peculiar experience and nobody must be acquainted with what is being done.”