Safety and security of society depends on three important components: political stability, economic development and prosperity, and the national defence capability. This is well known. In the current dynamically developing situation, characterized by increased instability and uncertainty in the world, the destruction of the old and transformation into the new form of modern world order, the issues of state border policy, as an integral part of the domestic and foreign policy of the state, have received special relevance and filling with new content.

The actualization of new challenges and threats to safety and security, the range and severity of which are evolving, changing and acquiring a cross-border character, necessitate a change in the views of States on foreign and domestic policy issues, as well as adjustments to the measures taken to protect the national security in the border area.

The realities of life in the nineties in sovereign Belarus determined the emergence of a new term and content in the political sphere – state border policy, as an integral part of the internal and foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus, which is the activity of authorized state bodies and officials aimed at ensuring border security, which made it possible to solve existing problems more effectively.

The state border policy is implemented in the border area through purposeful and coordinated activities of state authorities, local executive and administrative bodies, public associations and citizens in accordance with their rights and powers in this area.

The state border policy is carried out in the general system of ensuring national security through coordinated activities of national authorities, state authorities of the border subjects of the country, local self-government bodies, public associations, organizations and citizens strictly on the basis of legislation. The peculiarity of the border policy is that, having the status of the state, its implementation is carried out at various levels.

The state border policy is carried out by implementing two main functions: barrier and contact.

Since 2008, a set of organizational and practical measures aimed at bringing the national border legislation, the structure and organization of the border service in line with modern requirements for the border management system has been carried out in the Republic of Belarus. The state border policy has become a key direction of the transformations carried out in the border area. The activities carried out in the interests of both subjects and objects of the border have also become more specific. This is primarily due to the designation of the limits of the border zone, the construction and reconstruction of border infrastructure, the development of border and tourist services, the creation of logistics structures, the formation of an effective system for the prevention of violations of border legislation.

However, in recent years, the intensification of threats and security challenges in the border area has required a return to strengthening regime indicators and increasing the barrier function of border protection.

The militarization of the border area and the state border in the Baltic and, especially, the Polish direction, the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine led to the necessity to develop and implement additional measures to ensure reliable border protection and immediate readiness to protect the border. Besides additional engineering equipment, as well as concentration of technical means along the security lines and increasing the number of border guards, the units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus are involved in ensuring the protection of the border.

Moreover, additional tasks to ensure border security have been assigned to diverse forces and means, including the operational component. Together with the measures taken earlier to increase the number of border units on all sections of the border, with priority on the southern borders, all this made it possible to create echeloned border protection lines in all directions.

Also, the filling of the contact function of the protection of the Belarusian borders with real content continues. The creation of an effective system of integrated counteraction to risks and threats of a cross-border nature is focused on compliance, first of all, with the interests of citizens and economic entities. As before, nowadays border units ensure the conditions and procedure for safe and comfortable border crossing, transit of passenger and cargo flows through the territory of the country.

In addition, taking into account the high demand for the Belarusian visa-free regime by foreign citizens, the highest-level leaders of the country decided to extend the right of visa-free entry for citizens of Latvia and Lithuania who will be able to arrive in Belarus without a visa until December 31, 2022 inclusive.

In total, since its introduction on April 15, 2022, as of mid-May 2022, about 52 thousand citizens of Lithuania, citizens (non-citizens) of Latvia have traveled to Belarus, 65% of whom arrived under the visa-free regime.

It will be possible to cross the border without a visa for the citizens of the Republic of Latvia, as well as persons with the status of a non-citizen of the Republic of Latvia and citizens of the Republic of Lithuania at checkpoints on the Belarusian-Latvian and Belarusian-Lithuanian sections of the border. During this period, these categories of citizens can use the right of visa-free entry to Belarus for an unlimited number of times and stay on the entire territory of Belarus.

Also, it is allowed to visit the border zone without a pass for such category of persons who arrive in our country. To do this, when entering the Republic of Belarus at the checkpoint, it is necessary to inform an official of the border service about the intention to visit the border zone, indicate the settlements and the purpose of their visit.

The “guru” of American real politics and political thought, Henry Kissinger, believed that world order and peaceful coexistence of civilizations are possible only if there is a balance of power, and not the hegemony of one or several countries. According to his point of view, in order that any system of international relations works, it must have two keys: first, complete balance, which will make the very attempt to break this system a heavy and expensive pleasure, and secondly, the system must be legitimate in the eyes of its founders.

In the current period, this is clearly combined with the fact that safety and security should be unified and indivisible, which the Republic of Belarus consistently advocates and tries to implement in practice. The world order in the ХХІ century cannot be based on a single concept of the balance of power, but will be built with the participation of many countries that will represent different cultures.