Lukashenko Instructed to Prepare the Response to the Deployment of U.S. Tanks in Lithuania

President of Belarus Aleksander Lukashenko instructed the Secretary of State of the Security Council and the Minister of Defense of the country to preparean action plan in response to the deployment of American tanks in close proximity to the state’s border, said State Secretary of Security Council Stanislav Zas on Tuesday, October 22. He specified that U.S. tanks will be located at the Pabrade training ground 15 km from the border of Belarus. “Until now, there were no American units in this country. They are appearing there now,” BelTA quoted Zas. Response measures are elaboratedin such a situation in any country. The proposals will be developed and presented to Lukashenko early next week, he added. As stated by Zas, Minsk is concerned about the upcoming large-scale NATO exercises Defender Europe, which are scheduled to be held in the spring of 2020. According to him, the maneuvers will become the largest in the past 25 years. “About 40 thousand troops from 18 NATO countries will take part in them. And besides, about half of these servicemen are from the U.S.A.,” added the State Secretary of Security Council of Belarus. Earlier on Tuesday, Lukashenko stated about a constantly tense situation near the borders of Belarus. In his opinion, instead of good-neighborly relations, which Minsk stands for, “an arc of instability is emerging”. On October 11, the Belarusian leader said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to think about how to ensure the security of their countries during major NATO exercises at the Belarusian borders. iz.ru