US military officers have observed the Zapad military exercises, and Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin has told them they can watch anything that seems noteworthy, Reuters reports.
Russia and Belarus began the exercises on the 12th of September. Relations between the two countries with neighboring NATO members are tense, and the entry of Russian drones into Polish airspace on the 10th of September further aggravated the situation.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry described the Americans’ arrival as a surprise. Along with the US military representatives, 23 other countries are observing the Zapad exercise, including NATO members Turkey and Hungary. The ministry released a video showing two uniformed US officers shaking hands with Khrenin. They declined to speak to reporters, but
Khrenin stressed that he was ready to show the Americans anything they might be interested in,
and encouraged them to talk to the exercise participants.
The presence of US officers signals a possible thaw in relations between the US and Belarus, a close ally of Moscow. Belarus has allowed the Russians to use its territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last week, US President Donald Trump’s spokesman, John Coale, visited Minsk to meet with self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who agreed to release 52 political prisoners, including journalists and political opponents. In exchange for the release of the political prisoners, the US has lifted sanctions on the Belarusian state airline Belavia. Trump wants to reopen the US embassy in Minsk in the near future and restore economic and trade cooperation.
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