Moscow. October 20. INTERFAX - Military threats, political and economic pressure from Western countries have forced Russia and Belarus to take retaliatory measures, one of them is the new Military Doctrine of the Union State, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"In addition to military threats, we continue to face political and economic pressure on our countries from the so-called collective West. Under the circumstances, we are forced to take retaliatory measures," Shoigu said on Wednesday at a joint board of the defense ministries of Russia and Belarus.
According to him, one of such measures is the new Military Doctrine of the Union State.
"A new Military Doctrine of the Union State has been prepared, which is planned to be approved in the near future at the next meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State," Shoigu said.
The military departments of the two countries, he noted, have switched to planning bilateral military cooperation on the basis of a strategic partnership program developed for a five-year period.
The scale of training of troops and management bodies is expanding, Shoigu said.
"In September, a joint strategic exercise "West-2021" was held. We will work out actions within the framework of the CSTO. Currently, an exercise with the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces of the Organization "Interaction-2021" is taking place in Tajikistan. In September, Belarusian servicemen took part for the first time in the anti-terrorist exercise of the SCO member states "Peace Mission - 2021," the Russian Defense Minister said.
He stressed that the achieved level of cooperation between the military departments of the Russian Federation and Belarus allows "timely adaptation of security tasks to the changes taking place in the world and effectively solve them."
"In the conditions of increasing threats to the Union State, the implementation of a coordinated military policy, cooperation in the construction and development of the armed forces, increasing the level of coherence and combat training, as well as the mutual use of military infrastructure facilities are becoming particularly relevant for Russia and Belarus, and the activities of the joint board are in demand as never before," Shoigu stated.
