OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu has arrived in Minsk on a working visit. This was reported by the press service of the Belarusian Defense Ministry. According to the statement, Shoygu came at the head of the delegation “to discuss issues of bilateral military cooperation between Belarus and Russia.”

On September 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi, announced that the countries would conduct monthly military exercises on the territories of both countries. Lukashenko noted that he instructed the head of the Belarusian Defense Ministry Viktor Khrenin to develop a program of joint exercises for coming years. He suggested that Putin give the same order to Shoygu.

At the same day, the Russian–Belarusian exercise Slavic Brotherhood 2020 started in Belarus. The Ministry of Defense of Russia said that the agreement on holding this exercise was reached in October last year, and assured that the event is of a counter-terrorism nature.