Naryshkin praises close ties between special services of Russia, Belarus

The 20th joint collegium meeting of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation took place on 3 June. “The joint collegium meeting of the intelligence services of our countries has become a good tradition and a good opportunity to take stock of joint work, to plan further activities and to assess how accurately we fulfill the tasks set by the presidents of the two countries. During the joint discussion, we thoroughly analyzed the state of things and I must say that we highly appreciate the level of interaction and trust between our special services and we value our partnership,” Sergei Naryshkin said.

Security matters are an important part of interstate cooperation. “Protection of our independence and sovereignty is a very urgent matter. In this regard, it is important that the special services of our countries coordinate their efforts. Our partnership with the State Security Committee of Belarus has many aspects. The traditional area of cooperation is fighting international terrorism. Unfortunately, threats of this kind have not gone away. Together with Belarusian partners we have strengthened the analytical component of our work, as we possess a large amount of information. We work together and we understand that the potential of our cooperation is much bigger; this also pertains to the intellectual potential. We have noted today that we should utilize our capabilities more,” Sergei Naryshkin said.

Answering journalists' questions about the heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and the attempt of European countries to rewrite history, the SVR chief said that such treatment of history is unacceptable. “The truth is that the Soviet Union made a decisive contribution to the defeat of Hitlerite Germany, fascism. In that war, all nations of the USSR, including Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Georgians and others, fought shoulder to shoulder, and together they liberated the countries of Eastern Europe and partially Central Europe,” Sergei Naryshkin said.