Председатель КГБ Беларуси Иван Тертель и директор СВР России Сергей Нарышкин в апреле 2023 года. Фото: president.gov.by
A joint meeting of the boards of Belarus’s State Security Committee and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service was held in Kaliningrad today under the leadership of KGB Chairman Ivan Tertel and SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin.
The sides discussed current issues of bilateral cooperation in the security sphere, priority areas of intelligence activity and prospects for interaction within the framework of the Union State, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said.
Special attention was paid to improving forms of joint work “in the current geopolitical situation”.
“The parties confirmed their agreement on further coordination in countering the aggressive policies of the West towards Russia and Belarus. The primary task identified is to provide the leadership of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus with up-to-date and reliable information about the subversive plans of Western countries and the NATO bloc in the post-Soviet space and the threats this poses to the Union State.
The need was emphasised to intensify cooperation in order to prevent the entry into the territory of the Union State of individuals carrying extremist ideology and terrorist militants,” the press release said.
According to Naryshkin, the participants discussed in detail issues related to joint intelligence activities.
“We discussed in detail the full range of issues concerning joint investigations in those areas that fall within the competence of our agencies under special conditions,” Naryshkin was quoted as saying by TASS.
“Our cooperation is also aimed at work in such a traditional area as the fight against international terrorism. Unfortunately, this threat has not disappeared, and we are quite actively engaged in exchanging intelligence information on terrorist organisations, their accomplices and funding channels. Unfortunately, I repeat, this task remains with us,” he added.
According to him, the global task of the two agencies is “to ensure the security of Russia, Belarus and the common Union State”.
He said that as part of this task, the Russian side together with Belarusian colleagues is carrying out “joint intelligence activities to identify and suppress the harmful intentions of external forces aimed at causing damage to our two states and the Union State in the political, economic and social spheres”.