MOSCOW, 9 February (BelTA) – The conflict in Ukraine looks like a local conflict only on the map, in fact the West is using it for global confrontation, reads the address of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Aleinik to participants of the conference “Collective Security in a New Era: Experience and Prospects of the CSTO” that is taking place at the Moscow headquarters of the Valdai Discussion Club with the support of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 9 February, BelTA has learned.
The address of the deputy foreign minister was read out by Belarus' Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to the CSTO Vyacheslav Remenchik.
“The conflict in Ukraine looks local only on the map. Today, this is a flashpoint, or rather a pretext for a global political confrontation,” Sergei Aleinik emphasized in his address.
He went on saying that a number of NATO member states are actively arming the southern neighbor of Belarus allegedly to repel the so-called Russian aggression. “At the same time, NATO is amassing forces and upgrading the military infrastructure along our western border, and increasing the intensity and scale of operational and combat training activities on the European continent. Thus, the number of drills of the coalition forces of the NATO member states more than tripled over the past year,” the diplomat noted.
In his opinion, the situation in the world and in the region of responsibility of the CSTO requires utmost attention. “We are witnessing a consistent dismantling of the systemic foundations of international and regional security,” Sergei Aleinik noted. “Confidence is being replaced by confrontation, dialogue is being replaced by the blame game. International instruments of arms control as well as confidence- and security-building measures continue to degrade. Meanwhile, the spiral is devolving into a full-scale arms race in Europe,” the deputy foreign minister said.
