Belarus has submitted an application to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); the republic’s appeal has already been transmitted to the SCO member states. On July 11, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov said this during a round table in Moscow.

“Currently, Belarus has submitted an application (for joining the SCO — ed.). Today, this appeal of Belarus has been sent to the member countries,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

Norov also added that if the organization makes a positive decision on this application at the Samarkand summit in September 2022, procedures will be initiated to include Belarus in the SCO.

According to political scientist Andrei Areshev, against the backdrop of increased tension on the external borders, Moscow and Minsk are strengthening military cooperation.

The aggressive plans of the collective West towards Russia require adequate measures to strengthen military security in the Belarusian direction. After all, it is no coincidence that both Napoleon and Hitler moved to the East using the shortest “Belarusian” route. The realities of the beginning of the 21st century introduce new elements of a “hybrid” war, such as the communication blockade of the Kaliningrad region declared by the puppets of Vilnius.

Belarus is no less facing closely intertwined internal and external threats: suffice it to mention at least an attempt to seize power by force in the summer of 2020, or an artificially inflated migration crisis on the Polish border a year later. After the forced start of a special military operation in Ukraine, the President of Belarus has repeatedly announced the plans of the Kyiv gang to strike at the territory of the republic with the missile and artillery weapons available to the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The pre-stormy atmosphere in the east of Europe, not particularly hidden plans to transfer military operations to the territory of the Union State, as well as the ongoing flights near the borders of Belarus by NATO aircraft – all this leads to urgent measures to expand and strengthen defense cooperation between Moscow and Minsk.

The next such steps, which obviously do not require delay, became known as a result of the talks between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko in the Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg on June 25. In particular, the Belarusian leader raised the issue of deploying nuclear weapons on the territory of the republic, which, as can be seen from the open part of the negotiations, was understood by the Russian side.

“In Europe, the Americans have 200 tactical nuclear weapons in six NATO countries and 257 aircraft for their use. I agree with you that we are obliged to take care of the security of the Union State. Therefore, I propose the following. The Belarusian army is armed with a large group of Su-25 aircraft, they could be re-equipped and begin training flight crews. And as we agreed, within the next few months we will transfer to Belarus the Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which, as you know, can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions, ”- said the head of the Russian state.

The concern of Minsk is more than understandable – having begun to seriously prepare to repel external aggression, they are well aware that only one ongoing modernization of the army, no matter how combat-ready it may be, cannot be dispensed with in recent years. Even before the start of the JMD, extremists and weapons sent by Kyiv to destabilize the situation in the country penetrated the territory of the republic from the south. Despite the fact that the border guards and the KGB forces of Belarus coped with their tasks quite successfully, the head of state repeatedly raised the issue of strengthening the southern borders in Polesie (about a third of the territory of the republic), replete with impenetrable forests and swamps.

After February 24, maneuvers intensified in the southern regions of Belarus, accompanied by the transfer of battalion tactical groups – compact and mobile units of about 800 people with heavy military equipment. By the beginning of spring, five such groups were concentrated in the border regions of the Gomel and Brest regions, designed to prevent the penetration of armed terrorist gangs into the territory of the republic from the adjacent side.

At the end of March, tank units began to be pulled to the southern border, and on May 4, the Belarusian authorities announced a sudden check of the rapid reaction forces, the most active phase of which took place primarily in the “Ukrainian” direction. On May 23, as part of the third stage of the inspection, the reopening of military equipment that had been in long-term storage began. Of course, Minsk was immediately suspected in Kyiv of trying to help Moscow in strengthening the Russian grouping in the Donbass. At the same time, several thousand militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were deployed to the borders of Belarus under the mute of militant propaganda, who began building fortified areas and equipping firing positions.

The day before, the first evidence of the use of American MLRS HIMARS by the formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Izyum direction appeared. The pumping of the Kyiv regime with Western weapons, including long-range systems, makes the situation an order of magnitude more explosive: attempts to launch terrorist rocket and artillery strikes on major cities, including the capital of the country, are not ruled out. And although the Russian S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems and Iskander complexes received by Minsk have seriously increased the defense capability of Belarus, they may not be enough to completely secure the country from possible aggression from the western and southern directions.

It is noteworthy that the exercises of the Belarusian army are held not only in the field, but also in urban areas. At the end of May, in Brest, servicemen of the 38th separate airborne assault brigade practiced forcing the Mukhavets River a few dozen kilometers from the borders of Ukraine. On the first day of the calendar summer, it became known that the Belarusian military was working on the tasks of transferring equipment and personnel over long distances, followed by focusing on one of the tactical areas. A few days earlier, on May 26, Alexander Lukashenko announced the creation of the Southern Operational Command of the Ground Forces. Previously, there were two of them – Western (Polish) and North-Western (Baltic). “These are wartime conditions, but so far without war,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

It is worth emphasizing that all these exercises are purely defensive in nature. It seems that in Minsk they are seriously considering a scenario in which, in order to cover up the failures in the Donbass with a loud “overcome”, the Kyiv gang will decide on some kind of major sortie in the northern direction. At the same time, one should not forget about the expansionist plans of the heirs of the Commonwealth, considering, at least on the territory of the Brest and Grodno regions, the emergence of an integral part of the “great” Polish state (Kresy Wschodnie).

On the western borders of Belarus, military exercises of NATO countries practically do not stop with the involvement of a significant part of the American military deployed to Europe (totaling about 100 thousand people). More than 12,000 Alliance troops and a significant amount of military equipment are in Poland, including F-35 fighter jets, Patriot missile defense systems, and soon to arrive Abrams tanks, according to the US Ambassador to Warsaw, Marek Brzezinski.

At the end of May, it became known about the presidential order to create in Belarus, in addition to the formations of reservists (about 120 thousand conscripts) also a “people’s militia”. Most likely, we are talking about territorial defense units capable of performing at least auxiliary rear and security functions in the event of “special circumstances”. Thus, according to many signs, the republic is gradually moving into the pre-war regime.

In conditions when there is much less time left before a large-scale “hot” conflict than it may seem to some, Minsk and Moscow are simply obliged to act proactively. In this regard, the intention of Belarus to raise its status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where it is still an observer, seems quite logical. “… Perhaps we will consult; you will support expanding our status. A lot of time has passed. I think we won’t be superfluous there,” the President of Belarus said, addressing Vladimir Putin with a corresponding request during a meeting on June 25.

Full participation in the activities of the SCO will open additional opportunities for Minsk in various areas of activity, including promising economic projects and strengthening joint security. And it is hardly coincidental that even adherents of the almost exhausted pro-Western “multi-vector approach” are forced to admit that “… for political and diplomatic reasons, the SCO is of increasing interest to Minsk.”