Meeting to discuss development of government communications system

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has called a conference to discuss the development of the government communications system.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “I would like to pick up the conversation we started when we visited the relevant secure communications facilities. Today I would like to talk about our further steps, including shortcomings. Back then I told you we will start closely monitoring the work of the KGB and other bodies that develop secure communications solutions, including government ones.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that a lot had been done in this regard already. “The President uses stationary communications solutions developed in Belarus. All the top officials and members of the government can use rather good stationary communications solutions. The fact is that we are absolutely independent in this case is the most important one. We’ve created our own communications systems, our own data encryption centers that are inaccessible to foreign intelligence services.”

“A lot has been done but not everything. Today we make and test some mobile communications solutions. Today everyone has a mobile phone for ease of communication yet it can be easily tapped as well. We need to create a secure mobile communications system. A secret communications system as people say. We are testing one. Certainly, there are some drawbacks. We should sincerely talk about it today,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The President said he had recently instructed the Operations and Analysis Center to check the KGB’s progress in developing secure communications, check whether the system is closely monitored, whether it is reliable and inaccessible for foreign intelligence services and unauthorized persons. “I would like to hear about it today. I would like to sketch out further steps in developing mobile and stationary secure communications,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.

In his words, this work goes beyond developing a concrete product, which offers good communications. “It will improve our encryption school and the ability to create such systems. If we can do it, it means we have excellent specialists and this school will evolve,” the President believes. “We have good specialists and accomplishments and cannot afford losing them. Moreover, many of the systems we’ve created, including secure government communications ones, enjoy respect of foreign nations. Heads of state even ask me to sell them reliable communications solutions like the one Belarus has.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko went on saying that the Belarusian side had already created such government communications systems for some heads of state. “They sell well for considerable amounts of money, this is why it would be reasonable to continue working in this direction and develop our systems,” he said.