World is reminiscent of that before First World War – Lukashenka at Minsk Dialogue
On May 24, the Belarusian leader made a speech at the plenary session ‘How To Make Eastern Europe Region of Cooperation, Not Confrontation’ which was part of the Minsk Dialogue international forum.
Organisers of the Minsk Dialogue barred Belsat TV from covering Lukashenka’s address.
“Great powers which should be a guarantee of stability fail to arrive at a common view on any matter. We are concerned about the lack of assurance of deterrence of a big armed conflict. Just think about it: these days a third of countries are embroiled in wars – it is more than during the Second World War! We have not yet forgotten the invaders that came to our land,” the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva quotes Lukashenka.
According to him, today’s world is reminiscent of the period before the First World War. In his opinion, someone wants to draw China into the conflict between the West and Russia.
“Small countries should not just wait and see what will be decided by big countries,” he said.
“Ukraine is not just our neighbour, it is our brotherly people – like Russians. We welcomed more than 150,000 Ukrainian refugees. Whatever be the format or the negotiations on Donbas, the parties can always bank on Belarus’ support. We are not eager to become peacekeepers [however, in February Lukashenka was ready to send 10,000 Belarusian soldiers to Donbas – Belsat.eu], we have our own problems to solve. But if there is no peace in Ukraine, there will be a lot of trouble not only for us, but for you [West] as well,” Lukashenka stressed.
In his speech, the Belarusianleader raised the issue of cyber security and calling information ‘new weapons’. Alyaksandr Lukashenka also proposed to ‘breathe new life into the OSCE’, since ‘many have already forgotten what the OSCE really is’.
The event has been held for the fourth year in a row. Although the nominal organiser of the forum is a non-governmental community headed by Yauhen Preygerman, the support of the Foreign Ministry is ill-disguised.
On May 23, Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey was taking part in the conference. He failed to give the reason why Belsat TV had repeatedly denied accreditation in the Republic of Belarus.
