President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday held a working meeting with State Secretary Stanislav Zas  of the Security Council of Belarus, press service of the Belarusian president informed.

Zas informed about his meetings with leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member countries, and who would agree on his candidacy as the new Secretary General of this organization.

As per the press service of the Belarusian president, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Russia have approved his respective candidacy.

And Lukashenko formally supported Stanislav Zas’ appointment by signing the respective draft decision by the CSTO Collective Security Council.

“It’s time that we make a transition from in some sense formal appointment of former, retired generals—I don’t want to say anything bad about them—in this organization to serving, young and promising generals so that we give importance to this organization,” the Belarusian president explained, in particular, his respective decision. “This is a politico-military organization.”

Also, he expressed the hope that when appointing their own representatives to the office of CSTO Secretary General in the future, the other member countries of this organization will also follow this practice.