Belarusian president says CSTO potential used not fully

MINSK, February 9. /TASS/. The potential of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is not being fully used, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday at a meeting with CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha. "We are not fully using this potential. Either we don’t understand it, which is improbable, or we are preoccupied with something else," he said. The Collective Security Treaty Organization, according to Lukashenko, is not a mere format. "It is an organization where we should act jointly and demonstrate our resoluteness to defend our security, security of its member states," he said. "And looking at us, even those who are not member of this organization should have some hope we will be able to ensure security to our neighbors." He said these issues had been raised at his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We did not focus on these problems at a meeting with the Russian prime minister [Dmitry Medvedev]. But as everything tells on the economy, now, in the present-day globalized world, everything is inter-related," Lukashenko noted. Speaking about his talks with Putin, the Belarusian leader noted they had dedicated much attention to security problems - "everything which is going on in the Western direction, everything concerning Ukraine, Syria, relations with Turkey - the entire tangle." The Belarusian president said these problems told on his country too. "We discussed economic issues, all these problems in their relation to security," he said. Bordyuzha said in his opinion the situation in the CSTO zone was relatively stable as compared with that in Europe or the Middle East. "It might sound strange but the situation in all our countries is relatively stable," he said. "And this is thanks to the efforts taken by our leaders in the national security systems in all of the member states." Read more