On July 3, Minsk hosted celebrations dedicated to the Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus, in which the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas took part. On July 2, he attended a solemn meeting dedicated to this holiday with the participation of the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. On July 3 he laid flowers at the Victory Monument. 

Also the celebrations were attended by the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergey Lebedev, the State Secretary of the Union State of the Republic of Belarus and Russia Grigory Rapota and the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich.. 

The ceremonies were attended by the ambassadors of the CSTO member states.

Stanislav Zas also held talks with the heads of power structures of the Republic of Belarus on issues of interaction in the CSTO format. 

The Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus (the Republic Day) is the main holiday of Belarusian statehood. It is celebrated annually on July 3 in honor of the liberation of the capital of the Republic of Belarus Minsk from Nazi invaders in 1944.

The decision to celebrate the Independence Day on July 3 was made during a republican referendum in 1996.

On the Independence Day, the Days of several Belarusian cities are also celebrated.

Expositions dedicated to the work of Soviet diplomats upon the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the life of a foreign diplomatic corps during the evacuation period, and also the contribution of the Union Republics of the USSR (now the CSTO member states) to the Great Victory were deployed as margin notes of the event.