Meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.

At the beginning of the meeting Aleksandr Lukashenko received a set of the Soviet Union awards, which were awarded for military service during the Great Patriotic War, as a gift from Andrei Belousov.

The gift is a panel featuring life-size replicas of the Soviet Union awards. The set is called Winners’ Awards. “These are replicas of all the combat awards of the Soviet Union. They are very well made, starting from the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union,” said Andrei Belousov.

“Andrei Removich [Belousov], I understand that today you are going to bestow all the awards upon me,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said jokingly, welcoming the guest at the Palace of Independence.

“Yes, for sure,” replied Andrei Belousov. “First of all, I would like to convey the warmest words from President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. I spoke with him literally last night.”

“He and I spoke about it [Andrei Belousov's visit to Belarus] the day before yesterday,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Andrei Belousov went on saying: “He said a lot of warm words to convey to you. The point is, of course, that we are not just friends. We are already so closely connected that we simply have a tacit understanding with each other.”

“Thank you. We will allocate a decent place for it. It is a very good idea. You have made all the awards,” Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked for the gift.

Among the awards on the panel are the Order of Victory, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star, and the Order of Patriotic War. The panel also features the Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky and other awards.

Among other things, the meeting focused on the upcoming joint army exercise.

“I would like to say that we are ready for the exercise. We are not hiding anything from anyone. We demonstrate openness showing that this exercise is our military drill and is defensive in nature. We are not going to attack anyone, as some may think. Well, they may think whatever they want. The decision on the exercise has been made at the level of the Presidents. We discussed this issue with Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin, Russian President],” the head of state said.

“As for our part, the Belarusian training grounds are ready. We are ready to fly to the training grounds of Russia, according to the plan. We are ready to receive Russian troops here. In order to conduct a joint exercise of our joint force grouping, which has been set up in the Union State. Russia should not have worries in this respect. We will be very well prepared. Our Belarusian troops will be on a par with anybody else, as it was at the recent parade,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.

“We will act in the given key and will comply with those advanced methods of today's warfare, resistance, taking into account [the experience] of the special military operation and new principles and methods,” the Belarusian leader said.

He also thanked Russia for training the Belarusian military on a par with the Russian servicemen.

"I am very grateful to you for not just training our military specialists, not just allowing them to participate in training with you, but for treating them as equals to Russian servicemen, not as foreigners. They sit side by side in the classroom, learning the same things. This is very important, and we highly appreciate it because it represents the highest level of trust. After all, this is about security and defense. Russia does not separate itself from Belarus in this regard and has no such interaction with any other country. We truly value this," the Belarusian leader emphasized.

“As for military-technical cooperation, I am grateful to the Russian Federation for finding an opportunity in this difficult time to supply Belarus with the military hardware we have purchased. I mean aircraft, helicopters and so on,” said the head of state. “We are actively working on advanced weapons. You know it well. We are implementing the plan, which we discussed with Vladimir Putin, to deploy the most advanced defensive hardware here. Including the Oreshnik and so on. We have made significant progress here.”

“We are going to discuss these issues today. Everyone should understand that we are not joking around here. We are not going to attack anyone. But if... We have to defend not only the historical truth, but also our land, our relatives, our loved ones, our families and our Fatherland. You can be sure of that. We are absolutely ready and will not let our Russian kin people down,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.