Events

MINSK, 31 October (BelTA) - The Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting kicks off in Minsk on 31 October. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko will take part in the discussion panel "East-West Relations", BelTA learned from the press service of the head of state.

For two days, heads of state and government, prominent politicians, representatives of international organizations and the academic community, heads of the intelligence agencies and security experts will discuss the East-West relations, possible ways of solving regional conflicts, economic situation in Eastern Europe, energy issues and transnational security.

Over 100 people will attend the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting in Minsk. Earlier the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that confirmed participants include Armenia President Armen Sarkissian, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, the foreign ministers of Macedonia, Mongolia, Poland and Slovakia. Attending the event will be also OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Lassina Zerbo.

The Minsk meeting will be dedicated to the Minsk process, the relations between East and West, arms control, confidence building measures and the regional conflicts.

The Munich Security Conference is an annual event held since 1963. The event was initially meant as a dialogue between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States on security policy. It later attracted the attention of political and military circles of other countries. At present the Munich Security Conference is considered the most important independent forum for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers.

The first MSC Core Group Meeting was held in 2009. Meetings are held in the format of an exclusive high-level dialogue with the involvement of a wide range of participants. They are a continuation of the Munich Security Conference and traditionally focus on the security in the region they are held in.

In 2018 the Munich Security Conference leadership suggested holding its next Core Group Meeting in Minsk stressing Belarus’ contribution to stability and security in the region and the possibility to gather key players in Belarus.

Belarus has been taking part in the Munich Security Conference since 2006. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belarus traditionally uses this platform to present its position on key aspects of the international and regional security architecture, to hold bilateral meetings with officials from other states,” he said.