Military security has been and will be one of the priorities for the Belarusian government, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko as he heard out a report from Defense Minister Yuri Zhadobin on 11 November. The report covered results achieved by the Armed Forces of Belarus in 2011, BelTA has learned.

“We always evaluate the real situation around Belarus and take necessary measures to enhance its security,” stressed the head of state. He remarked that a recent territorial defense exercise is a vivid testament to that.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, systemic training of territorial troops helps further development of the national military potential. It will increase the importance of the Armed Forces that have to play the key role in ensuring the national security.

In response to statements and comments voiced by ill wishers after the territorial defense exercise and consequent statements made by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko remarked that the territorial defense concept had been in development since 2000. “These decisions had been made long before. Many exercises had been held. At last they are awake and hear that Lukashenko is busy creating some new territorial troops, a new army,” said the President. “When I was saying that we are indeed creating a new army, I meant not only the territorial defense system and territorial troops as the foundation, the lowest part of our defense shield and what will be used in full in time of war if, god forbid, it may happen. It is not something we have devised. It is done to spend less money on the regular army. The idea that stems from the last war, the resistance movement in Belarus, the guerilla war, is that we have to be ready for it. We would like to avoid what happened in 1941 when there were people, who could fight, when people were surrounded because they lacked armaments”.

“The resistance movement, the guerilla movement in Belarus is an inalienable part of the resistance of the Belarusian people. Today we have to prepare the population for it if something happens,” believes the President.

The head of state remarked that this year’s events have once again proved that some superpowers still heavily rely on military force in their politics. “It is particularly disturbing in view of the global financial crisis. Therefore, our task is obvious. We have to prevent our own military security from sliding. Now we can talk about results of the measures that have been taken in this area,” said the Belarusian leader.

In his words, these measures have enabled quality training of the troops, shaping a modern image of the Belarusian army. “Not everything is smooth certainly but we can deal with it,” the head of state is convinced.