The agreement, which was announced Wednesday, was reached during a meeting between Ivan Kurbakov, the Belarusian interior minister, and Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vulin, who is on an official visit to Minsk.
Kurbakov is under sanctions from the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom, for his role in the repression of widespread protests that followed Belarus’s 2020 presidential elections, which saw Alexander Lukashenko return to office in a vote generally regarded as fraudulent.
The interior minister is believed to have orchestrated a campaign of intimidation carried out by the police, leading to arbitrary arrests and violence against peaceful protesters and journalists.
Vulin is under sanctions from the U.S. due to his close ties with Russia.
Kurbakov and Vulin agreed that the two countries “face similar security threats and challenges and highlighted the successful cooperation of the Serbian and Belarusian security structures and the need to improve it,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.
Belarus is under European Union (EU) sanctions for its role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Lukashenko remains a steadfast ally of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
Serbia aligned with the European Union in imposing sanctions on Belarus in 2022 for its involvement in the Russian attack on Ukraine, but not the following year with the expansion of those sanctions.
It has maintained strong ties with Russia while also being courted by the EU and European countries eager to curb Russian influence in the Balkans.
