BARANOVICHI, 23 August (BelTA) – Assets of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will be involved in peacekeeping missions of the United Nations Organization. CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov made the statement during the opening ceremony of the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces exercise Unbreakable Brotherhood 2016 on 23 August, BelTA has learned.
The CSTO Deputy Secretary General said: “For the first time ever the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces will get a mandate of the UN Security Council and will operate in a crisis area together with the UN mission. It is possible that CSTO units will be engaged soon.” In his words, work is now in progress to set up CSTO units to take care of various tasks. “A peacekeeping police unit is being set up as part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It will always stand by to carry out missions in accordance with UN standards,” specified Valery Semerikov. This area of work will help increase respect for the CSTO as a whole and for individual member states in particular.
The Unbreakable Brotherhood 2016 exercise together with the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces began in the combined arms exercise area Obuz-Lesnovsky in Brest Oblast on 23 August. Belarusian Deputy Defense Minister, Major-General Sergei Potapenko supervises the exercise.
As part of the exercise the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces will respond to a mass arrival of refugees from conflict zones. Buffer zones will be created, hypothetical aggressors will be separated, militants will be blocked and disarmed, and humanitarian cargoes will be escorted.
The exercise will test the real readiness of the staffs, commanders and rank and file personnel of the peacekeeping forces to act in an aggravated crisis situation, said the Belarusian Deputy Defense Minister.
The Unbreakable Brotherhood 2016 exercise is scheduled to take place on 23-27 August. National contingents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan are taking part in the exercise. Up to 1,500 personnel representing the armies, interior troops and police of all the six CSTO member states as well as about 300 aircraft, armored vehicles and automobiles will be involved in the exercise.
