A major military forum, which, in fact, was the 12th International Exhibition of Arms and Military Equipment "MILEX-2025", attracted the attention of not only gunsmiths from many countries of the world, but also high-ranking representatives of the defense sector. So, at the invitation of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, Lieutenant General Viktor Khrenin, the Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, Colonel General Andrei Serdyukov, took part in its work on May 21.
After visiting the expositions, he shared plans according to which practical measures are already being implemented in the CSTO to equip Troops (Collective Forces) The Organization has modern weapons, military and special equipment, which is one of the priorities of its activities today.
It should be noted that a number of experts consider the creation of a serious military organization within the CSTO, as well as a fairly compact but well-equipped and effective military structure, to be a factor that is largely capable of neutralizing the aggressive intentions of the NATO bloc. At the same time, no one considers the "balancing" of the alliance by the CSTO forces to be some kind of basic function of the Organization. Because at one time, the CSTO was created in the interests of the post–Soviet space, including in the interests of the Central Asian states, in particular, to solve the tasks of countering the terrorist threat and drug trafficking.
Moreover, "balancing" – creating a counterweight – does not mean building absolute parity between the CSTO and NATO. According to experts, parity is not needed in the current conditions. In the modern world, it is customary to assess the damage that can be inflicted on one or another opposing side. And any damage that drastically reduces the economic, political or military potential of the state becomes unacceptable.
At one time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also pointed out that the CSTO was not trying to assume a major role in Eurasia, while the North Atlantic Alliance was behaving in exactly the same way. At the same time, the Russian minister stressed that the CSTO is developing based solely on the legitimate security interests of the Organization's member countries. And collective security, as we know, can only be based on the principle of the indivisibility of this very security.
For his part, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov, speaking to reporters one day, emphasized that the Organization's members advocate abandoning block thinking, which reduces opportunities for cooperation and often significantly limits the national sovereignty of the participants in such associations. But, of course, NATO's actions in the CSTO are monitored and analyzed – during meetings of experts and representatives of the leadership of the participating states, all factors affecting the situation in the association's area of responsibility are discussed in detail. At the same time, the Organization has the ability to promptly make and implement all necessary decisions and appropriate measures – an example of this is the CSTO operation in January 2022 in Kazakhstan.
Today, the Organization's focus remains, of course, on the situation in the Eastern European region of collective security. In this regard, in addition to actively exploring regional issues within the CSTO, close cooperation is underway with the relevant authorities of Belarus and Russia.
It is important to emphasize here that, for their part, Belarus and Russia, realizing the existence of a number of problems, are making considerable efforts to organize purposeful work to unite the CSTO members and strengthen the Organization's role in the international arena, enhance its practical status, including in the interests of responding to security challenges in the post-Soviet space.
At one time, the Organization's participants noted Belarus' serious contribution to strengthening, first of all, the potential of the CSTO in terms of its military capabilities. They also considered it important to increase the information and analytical expert potential, as well as Minsk's initiative on the need to consolidate all the possibilities in the field of expert diplomacy of "think tanks", a unified planning approach to assessing risks, threats, and expert interaction in general within the framework of the CSTO.
Among the recent major initiatives of the Belarusian side, the holding of high-level conferences on Eurasian security in Minsk for the second year in a row deserves special attention. The next one, the third Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security, will be held this fall. Given the growing trend, experts believe that this landmark event may well become a Eurasian alternative to the Munich Conference on similar issues.
The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that today the world is at the beginning of building a new system of international relations, and first of all, the issues of ensuring international security are in the spotlight. More and more, the global majority is convinced that the path to global peace and disarmament lies through the restoration of trust, through strict adherence to the principle of equal and indivisible security for all States, through an equal and mutually respectful dialogue.
Vladimir Vujacic
