Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin said in an interview with Belarusian television that the country does not seek to be drawn into an arms race, warning that one of the consequences could be public discontent.
“We are preparing, building and developing our Armed Forces on a planned basis. We do not seek to be drawn into an arms race. This issue can be viewed in different ways. If we are drawn into an arms race, we will destroy social programmes. People may become outraged because we are building a social state, and then suddenly we would start spending on armaments. Therefore, based on the principle of reasonable sufficiency and the financial resources allocated, we carry out our planning,” he said.
It should be noted that over the past several years, spending on national defence in the republican budget has been steadily increasing. This year, such expenditures were planned at more than 4.7 billion roubles, while 4.52 billion roubles are planned for next year. It has also been reported that in 2024 the Belarusian army adopted 13 models of weapons, military and special equipment.
“We have enough of the weapons we have. Although many sceptics say they are Soviet-era and outdated. That is not true. They fight well. And if you add a bit more modernisation, good communications, protection, electronic warfare, and now unmanned systems have appeared, it becomes a very solid, comprehensive military core that is necessary for defence. We are not going to show aggression, we do not consider anyone an enemy, but we say that we will defend our country if someone wants to resolve issues from the standpoint of military force,” Khrenin continued.
According to him, the Defence Ministry is also counting on cooperation with Russia. As examples, he cited Oreshnik and the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.
“We have it, everything is fine. The President also periodically emphasises this. Quite recently it was updated. The latest task carried out by our heads of state was the deployment of the Oreshnik system on our territory,” he said.
Khrenin also accused Western countries of preparing for war. It should be noted that many states stepped up plans to rearm their armies after Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, using Belarusian territory for the invasion as well.
“Here I would also like to say that they should not perceive our desire for peace as weakness. They think that we got scared. We did not get scared of anything. But we understand perfectly well that politicians must speak, people must speak with words, not with artillery salvos. And we are ready for this, the President has repeatedly emphasised this. Therefore, we say: let us negotiate peacefully,” Khrenin said.