Russian government approves draft agreement to send Belarusian troops on humanitarian mission to Syria

February 8, BPN. Russian government has approved a draft agreement to send a Belarusian military contingent of up to 200 people on a humanitarian mission to Syria.

The agreement was prepared by the Russian Ministry of Defense, agreed with the Russian Foreign Ministry and “other relevant federal executive authorities, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation” and was provisionally examined by the “Belarusian side.”

The agreement is based on the Treaty on Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation between Russia and Belarus of February 21, 1995, the Agreement on Military Cooperation between Russia and Belarus of December 19, 1997, the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State of December 8, 1999 as well as on “the official invitation of the military and political leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic addressed to the Belarusian side to take part in the humanitarian aid mission in Syria by sending Belarusian troops to the Syrian Arab Republic for that purpose.”

Belarusian troops are to be “involved in activities exclusively for humanitarian purposes outside the combat zone” and are to be stationed “in the areas where the Russian aviation group is deployed.”