This was reported by Reuters, according to which Belarusian Defense Minister Viktar Khrenin told the Americans that they could look at anything they were interested in.

The Russian and Belarusian militaries began joint exercises in both countries on Friday, called Zapad 2025. The maneuvers come amid heightened tensions between Russia and NATO over the intrusion of around 20 drones into Polish airspace on Wednesday night, which Warsaw said were Russian.

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Reuters writes that the presence of Americans at the military exercise was presented as a surprise by the Belarusian Defense Ministry."Who would have thought that the next morning the Zapad-2025 exercise would begin," he said in a statement, noting that representatives of two other NATO countries, Hungary and Turkey, were also there. He posted photos of military observers on his Telegram channel, who are also from Serbia, Iran and China.

"We will show you whatever interests you. Whatever you want. You can go there and talk to the people," Khrenin told the Americans, who, according to Reuters, refused to speak to reporters at the site of the exercise, which took place near the city of Barysav, northeast of Minsk.

The agency calls their presence at the exercise another sign of warming relations between Washington and Minsk, a close ally of Russia. In February 2022, Belarus allowed the Russian army to invade Ukraine from its territory.

Last week, US President Donald Trump's representative, John Coale, met with authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, and Lukashenko agreed to release 52 prisoners, including journalists and dissidents.

Coale said that in exchange, the United States would ease sanctions on Belarus' state airline Belavia. He also said that Trump wants to reopen the U.S. embassy in Belarus in the near future and normalize relations with the Eastern European country. Trump also sent a friendly, handwritten letter to his representative, Lukashenko.