Belarus and China The joint counter-terrorism military exercise kicked off on Monday. Dubbed Eagle Assault 2024, the 11-day exercise will see troops train in night landings, overcoming water obstacles and urban combat.
The joint exercise took place with the participation of Belarus. Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)A Eurasian political, economic and defense organization led by Russia and China.
DW asked regional experts why Belarus needs the SCO and what joint exercises with China mean for the region.
Fight terrorism?
Belarus became the 10th member state of the SCO, which was originally made up of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Since the organization’s inception, India, Pakistan and Iran have also joined.
The SCO was initially intended to address border disputes between the top five countries. Joint security issues have since become a central focus, and member states regularly take part in joint counter-terrorism exercises.
Most experts agree that the SCO does not provide any financial or economic support to its member states. Instead, it serves as a platform for negotiations and talks.
“The SCO brings together heads of state and government of various countries,” said Pavel Matskevich, a researcher at the Center for New Thought, a think tank specializing in Belarusian politics. “They can conduct bilateral talks between SCO summits.”
Dependence on Russia
Belarus had ties with China and India even before joining the SCO. For many years, China has been Belarus’ second largest trading partner after Russia. European Union.
But Anastasia Ruzhina, a researcher at the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC), said Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko Since then, he has led the country International pariahAnd “the economy has had to adapt to this new reality,” she said.
Experts explained that the sanctions against Belarus are part of a response to the state’s human rights violations against people protesting the fraudulent 2020 elections and their results, which are shrinking the country’s economy.
“Initially, authorities looked to Russia, but now they are looking at other markets,” Ruzina said, because Belarus has decided that relying entirely on Russia is too risky. RussiaMinsk is exploring alternative solutions if Russia falls into recession, she added.
Ruzhina also noted that Belarus is trying to replace the European market with Asian partners, particularly China, and that Belarus’s membership in the SCO is in line with this strategy.
“Political marriage”
SCO membership could also increase Belarus’ chances of joining. BRICS“The BRICS group currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia,” Matskevich said. G7 bloc of highly industrialized countries.
“For Belarus, this is a marriage of convenience,” said Matskevich, the former diplomat. “The EU market is closed to them, access to the ports is closed. They are forced to use Russian and Chinese infrastructure and pursue trade with the Third World.”
He also said that by joining the SCO and becoming closer to BRICS, Minsk Dependence on RussiaMatskevich said Lukashenko seemed to believe he would get something in return for supporting Russia, China and India.
Experts say China is Belarus’ second most important trading partner after Russia. “About 70 percent of Belarus’ trade is with Russia and about 10 percent with China,” Ruzygina said.
She added that China dominates the relationship: With trade ties with the EU shrinking, Belarus has become reliant on Chinese-made machinery, cars and consumer goods, as well as exporting potash fertiliser and food products to China that were previously exported mainly to Western countries.
Maneuvers on the Polish border
This week’s joint military drills between China and Belarus may seem like a result of Belarus joining the SCO, but it is not the first military exercise the two countries have conducted together. The first took place in 2018 in the northeastern Chinese city of Jinan.
The two countries currently cooperate in Brest, in southwestern Belarus, just 2.8 km from the Polish border and 28 km from Ukraine.
Matskevich said Belarus’s membership in the SCO would have little to do with the military exercises.
“It takes time to prepare for that. It doesn’t happen overnight,” he said, adding that such drills always lead to tensions with neighboring countries.
Minsk maintained a dialogue with NATO and invited observers to NATO exercises from 2016, before the popular protests began in Belarus, until 2020. The current exercises in Belarus are likely to cause ripples in Russia because Chinese troops are involved in exercises in an area Russia considers its sphere of influence, experts said.
“China has not done so, but I assess this as a kind of challenge to Russian influence in the region,” Matskevich said. “These exercises are further evidence of how closely relations between Belarus and China have developed in all spheres.”
This article was originally published in Russian.
