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Lukashenka signs plan of early preparations for national defense

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has signed the country's plan of "early preparations" for national defense, Defense Minister Yury Zhadobin said after Monday's meeting chaired by the Belarusian leader, BelaPAN said.

"This document takes into account all components of the situation, not only strategic ones or those related to military security, but also the state's financial, economic capabilities," the minister said in a televised comment.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Lukashenka told the defense ministry to step up its work to draw up the country's national security concept, "which should not only preserve continuity and close connection with the fundamental documents that were previously adopted in this sphere but also become the starting point of and the connecting link between all follow-up strategic planning documents," according to the presidential press office.

"Belarus has approached the present period with a fully formed, complex system of ensuring national security," Mr. Lukashenka said, adding that the system "has proved effective even in extraordinarily tough conditions." "It is thanks to this to a great extent that our country, which is experiencing in full the difficulty of unwelcome phenomena brought from outside, has managed to hold out," he stressed.

Mr. Lukashenka noted that the Belarusian government had earlier adopted a concept setting out the army's formation and development until 2020 and the country's defense plan. "This has turned out to be not enough. I believe that there's a need for drawing up a fundamental document aimed at governing efforts to ensure the Belarusian state's security. It is important that it should include new approaches given the entire spectrum of present-day challenges and threats, as well as conditions for the further steady development of Belarus," he said.

The meeting also was attended by Deputy Defense Ministers Pyotr Tsikhanowski and Ivan Dyrman, and Ihar Azaronak, commander of the Air and Air Defense Forces.