Meeting with State Secretary of the Security Council Stanislav Zas

Belarus President Aleksandr  Lukashenko held a working meeting with State Secretary of the Security Council Stanislav Zas on 21 December.

Stanislav Zas briefed the president on his meetings with the CSTO heads of states who were to approve his candidacy for the post of secretary general of the organization. This form of appointment was proposed by Aleksandr Lukashenko during the St Petersburg summit in November 2018.

The state secretary of the Belarusian Security Council has already visited Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia. The heads of state approved the Belarusian candidacy for the post. Aleksandr Lukashenko also supported the appointment of Stanislav Zas by signing the corresponding draft resolution of the CSTO Collective Security Council.

“I said earlier that there was more than one candidate from Belarus. I decided on the candidacy of Stanislav Zas to demonstrate, if I may say so, an example that it was time for us to move away from some formal appointment of retired generals (I don’t mean to offend anyone) to the appointment of young promising generals in order to add importance to the organization,” the head of state explained his decision.

The president expressed the hope that other CSTO member states will follow suit when it is their turn to nominate their representatives to the post of the secretary general.

“This meets our criteria for the appointment of personnel: professionalism and commitment,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The head of state and the state secretary of the Security Council discussed the issues regarding the functioning of the CSTO and regional security. “We talked over some assignments and tasks, including the ways of their more effective fulfillment. A lot has been done recently to expand the legal framework. This is of high importance. However, the present day requires practical steps to strengthen our common security,” Stanislav Zas told the media after the meeting with the president.

Besides, Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the implementation of the agreements reached at the CSTO Summit in Astana in November. Back then the parties adopted the regulations on the formalization of the CSTO observer and partner statuses. This issue was raised by Belarus in due time. “We should build a belt of good-neighborliness in the organization. It is one of the tasks ahead,” Stanislav Zas.

The issues related to the reinforcement of the common borders in the CSTO, particularly in Central Asia, and also a number of other matters were on the agenda.