Minsk -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he is concerned about NATO expansion to the east.
“NATO is approaching Belarusian borders, and that certainly concerns us. That concerns us even more than the Russians because it’s our borders. And it is one of the main issues in our politics now,” Lukashenko told a press conference for the Russian regional media on Friday.
Lukashenko recalled that NATO guaranteed that it would not expand eastward when the Warsaw Treaty was severed.
“One of the reasons of my position on Ukraine is that you [the NATO countries] want to install armed forces in Crimea, and, according to some information, nuclear tactical weapons, too,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko said Belarus and Russia have always tried to react appropriately to NATO’s actions, holding large-scale annual tactical military exercises.
“We don’t want a war with NATO or anyone else. I don’t want to go to war with anyone. I am trying to prove to the Europeans that we are not aggressors and we should not be attacked via the Internet, etc.,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko said “three attempts have been made to attack Belarus] with all these colored revolutions via the Internet.”
“No one will protect us then, we know that and we know how it happens,” he said.
