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September 18 – September 24, 2017

Belarus will proceed with policy of balancing

The situation has not changed
Belarus will proceed with policy of balancing

Belarus hopes to reduce regional security threats with a new negotiation process, since the policy of balancing between the warring parties is close to exhaustion, as the West-2017 military exercises have demonstrated.

The West-2017 exercises have been held without significant excesses in terms of regional security, and confirmed that Belarus, even in alliance with Russia, was not a regional threat. The Belarusian authorities controlled the number of troops and weapons, the order and location of the exercises in Belarus and the compliance with the approved and promulgated scenario. Conventionally, Belarus has failed in providing adequate information coverage for the exercises.

However, these shortcomings had little impact on the overall outcome of the exercises for the region: Russia held an intimidation action and demonstrated its ability to create regional military threats around the perimeter – at training facilities in the Kaliningrad, Leningrad and Pskov regions and in Belarus in the framework of the West-2017 exercises; in the Astrakhan region within the framework of Combat Commonwealth-2017; at the troops training facilities in their permanent deployment areas, and, according to NATO spokesman O. Lungescu, in the Arctic, the Far East, the Black Sea near the border with Ukraine, and also in Abkhazia.

The growing hostility between Russia and all other Belarus’ neighbours has prompted the latter to look for ways to relax tension in the region. Foreign Minister Makey at the UN General Assembly last week attempted to promote the idea of negotiations in Minsk between Russia, the EU, China and the US, to work out common approaches to regional security and consolidate mutual commitments. Minsk is likely to continue the policy of balancing, strengthening mutual trust with the EU, the US and China, while continuing close cooperation with Russia.

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Once a week, in coordination with a group of prominent Belarusian analysts, we provide analytical commentaries on the most topical and relevant issues, including the behind-the-scenes processes occurring in Belarus. These commentaries are available in Belarusian, Russian, and English.
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