Belarusian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov recently signed a bilateral military cooperation agreement in Riga with NATO member Latvia. Belarus also signed similar agreements with Poland and the United States in October, and had already signed one with Lithuania in December 2015.
“Military cooperation between Minsk and NATO states is something to be welcomed,” the Belarusian political scientist Roman Jakovlevski told DW. He explained that the agreements with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, member states of both the European Union and NATO, were particularly important for Minsk as they share a 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) border with Belarus.
