OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2009. It is the first time when Belarus and Russia have reached such a high level of practical military cooperation, said Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko on 29 September as the troops that had taken part in the army exercise West 2009 marched past.

“We’ve come close to holding such large-scale maneuvers several times but only thanks to Dmitry Medvedev we have managed to hold the maneuvers this year for the first time in the history of the Belarusian-Russian military taskforce as a component of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Without the decision of the President of Russia we would not have had such large-scale joint maneuvers,” stressed the President of Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that the operative strategic exercise West 2009, which is a major event in the joint combat training of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia, had ended successfully. Exactly on time, all the tasks were accomplished. The scale of the exercise was tremendous. It involved the entire western part of the former Soviet Union. The Belarusian head of state remarked that the exercise had allowed increasing field and flight skills of all the troops. According to Alexander Lukashenko, the decision to hold such large-scale exercises in Belarus and Russia by turn every two years is worth a lot. Apart from Belarusian and Russian military the exercise involved units of the armed forces of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, which, the Belarus President believes, means that other countries are interested in training their armed forces using the principles and the example of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia. “This exercise is an example of protection of our nations in the Union State,” he said.

The Belarus President believes that it is symbolical that the exercise West 2009 was held in the year of the 65th anniversary of Belarus’ liberation from the Nazi and on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory. “We are proud of the deed accomplished by the generation of victors and hold dear the memory that our nations, the USSR nations made the decisive contribution to the vanquishing of the Nazi and the survival of the entire humankind,” said the Belarusian leader. “To be worthy of the memory about the elder generation’s great deed means to do one’s best to keep peace, reliably protect the native land from any threats and challenges”.

The Belarusian head of state thanked all the troops for skillful actions during the operative and strategic exercise West 2009. The presidents of Belarus and Russia presented awards to those who excelled during the exercise.