NATO Delegation Visits Belarus

From 4 to 6 March, Minsk hosted the consultations between representatives of the Belarusian Armed Forces and NATO dedicated to Belarus’ participation in Partnership for Peace Planning and Review Process (PARP) under the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme between Belarus and NATO for 2014-2015.

Belarus was represented by experts from structural subdivisions of the Defence Ministry, the General Staff and the Armed Forces responsible for the implementation of the PARP Partnership Goals, as well as representatives of the State Secretariat of the Belarusian Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The NATO delegation was headed by Jean-Claude Gagnon, Officer at the Planning Directorate in the Defence Policy and Planning Division of the International Military Staff. The delegation also included representatives from the NATO International Military Staff, Allied Command Operations (ACO) and Allied Command Transformation (ACT), as well as representatives of the embassies of the NATO member countries (Latvia, Lithuania) in Belarus.

The Belarusian side provided the information about the Belarusian Armed Forces’ development, defence budget distribution and military training in 2014, as well as the activities of the Defence Ministry in the framework of PARP.

The parties discussed a draft of the PARP 2015 Assessment Document, considered the implementation of the Partnership Goals accepted by Belarus, clarified a number of practical issues on their implementation and outlined the ways for future cooperation between the Defence Ministry and NATO.