MINSK, 13 June (BelTA) – Minsk is playing host to the sessions of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils as part of Belarus' chairmanship in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is expected to meet with participants of both events, BelTA learned from Natalya Eismont, Press Secretary of the Belarusian head of state.
The session of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council was chaired by Belarusian Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Andrei Ravkov. CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov took part in the session, BelTA learned from the CSTO official website.
The CSTO defense ministers discussed the joint schedule for training command units, forces, and assets of the CSTO's collective security system in 2018, a plan for consultations between representatives of CSTO member states about foreign policy, security, and defense in H2 2017 – H1 2018, and ways to improve the implementation of the agreement on the main principles of military and technical cooperation between the states parties to the Collective Security Treaty.
There are a total of 12 items on the agenda of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council session.
CSTO Press Secretary Vladimir Zainetdinov also confirmed that a session of the CSTO Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils is scheduled to take place in Minsk on 15 June. The committee is the CSTO's advisory and executive body in charge of coordinating interaction of the CSTO member states in matters of their national security.
BelTA reported earlier that Belarus took over the chairmanship in the Collective Security Treaty Organization at the summit in Armenia in autumn 2016.
