MINSK - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is convinced that the Ukrainian crisis gave an impetus to the improvement of the relations between the republic and the West.
“I am criticized or it is said with regret that the crisis in Ukraine helped Lukashenko etc. It did not help me. This is a pain for me, as well as for many Ukrainians and for those people who have relatives there,” Lukashenko said on Oct. 6, addressing the residents of the Minsk district.
“But the Ukrainian crisis showed how fragile the world is and if to break everything over [one’s] knee this way, Belarus may blaze up at any moment. And I don’t want this. This is the center of Europe. And suddenly everybody became sober. And this Ukrainian crisis and those problems, which we are experiencing now, happened to be, as far as I understand, a certain impetus to meet Belarus halfway and recognize the erroneous nature of sanctions,” the head of state said.
Lukashenko said that Minsk was ready for dialogue with the West. “We are not against this. We have our own state, we have our national interests which we did not give up even in the hard times. And we are not going to step away from them,” he said.
The president also said that he put it straightforwardly at the meetings with the leaders of other countries that “Belarus is a good student.” “We live for a little bit more than 20 years as a sovereign, independent state. We are ready to study. But if you push us into the back all the time, nothing will come out,” the head of state said.
“We will firmly adhere to our policy, as we should settle on this planet as a sovereign, independent state, so that no one else will want to look in our direction, rub their hands and think that tomorrow we will disintegrate this state like Ukraine and will divide it into pieces or will admit it somewhere as a whole. We are a sovereign and independent state. We without any ambitions are building our relations with our neighbors and no neighbor will say that we are creating some problems for him. But we will not give away a single piece of our land,” the head of state said.
He also said that he held talks with the leaders of other countries on this basis, proceeding from these principles. “And they are held successfully,” Lukashenko said.
