Alexander Surikov gave Belarusian military men state awards for Union state defense strengthening

On April, 7th Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Belarus Alexander Surikov gave Russian orders of Friendship to Belarusian military men for their big contribution to the development and strengthening of Russian and Belarusian military cooperation, reports RIA Novosti.

On April, 7^th Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Belarus Alexander Surikov gave Russian orders of Friendship to Belarusian military men for their big contribution to the development and strengthening of Russian and Belarusian military cooperation, reports RIA Novosti.

Russian orders of Friendship were given to the Chairman of State military and industrial committee of Belarus Sergei Gurluev, deputy head of General Staff of Armed forces of Belarus – head of the main operations Major General Vladimir Sulimov, deputy Commander of land forces – head of combat and reserve training department Major General Valeri Khokhlov and Major General Yuri Merentsov that had been the deputy of Minister of defense of Belarus till December, 2009.

According to Surikov Belarusian military men were awarded for preparation, scheduling and realization of the “Zapad-2009” military exercise.

“We have almost irreproachable relations between ministries of the both states and the military exercise is a vivid evidence of this”, - said Surikov.

“Common efforts made in order to strengthen Union State defense capacity justify the hopes of our nations and the heads of the states”, - pointed out Surikov.