The Council of Border Guard Commanders of the Commonwealth of Independent States signed 16 decisions as a result of the latest session in Minsk, BelTA learned from the Council's Deputy Chairman, Chairman of the Coordinating Service, Colonel-General Aleksandr Manilov.
The officer said: “The 82nd session of the CIS Border Guard Commanders Council has just ended. We discussed a number of matters during the session. Sixteen decisions were signed as a result of our work.”
The situation evolving at external borders of the CIS states was one of the main items on the agenda. The state of affairs in fight against terrorism was analyzed among other things. A final document was signed as a result. It contains an evaluation, an analysis, and projections regarding the development of the situation.
“The heads of the border service agencies believe that the situation is most complicated in the Tajikistan-Afghanistan section of the state border,” Aleksandr Manilov said. “According to our estimates, about 8,000 militants are concentrated there. They've come from warzones in Syria, Iraq, and other regions. Most of them are former natives of Caucasia, representatives of various nationalities, including from the African continent.” This is why decisions were made to beef up border security in this direction. In particular, the border guard commanders discussed the relevant document for the 2020-2025 period, which provides for a number of practical measures.
Participants of the session also discussed the council's work in 2019 and priority tasks for 2020, results of joint operations, which helped apprehend border trespassers and seize narcotics. The results indicate such operations will be necessary in the future. Proposals were made to stage some of them in Central Asia and in the western direction in 2020.
A lot of attention is paid to preparing for and organizing exercises of border service personnel for the sake of stronger border security. It was decided that Russia will host the next exercise like that in 2020.
Speaking about the 2021 ice hockey world championship, Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Anatoly Lappo added that Belarus has a lot of experience of ensuring security at such events. “We just have to renew the border checkpoints and take care of some technical things. I can guarantee all the citizens coming to Belarus will enjoy the visit,” he stressed.
