Lukashenko: it’s necessary to return to the tracks of normal development
Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke at the sixth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which is taking place in Astana
The Belarusian Head of State thanked the Kazakh side for organising the event and drew attention to the fact that today, after a forced break, there is an opportunity to discuss in person a lot of problems that have accumulated, “Each of the countries represented here boasts its own peculiarities, but we are united by the need to get out of the crisis as soon as possible and return to normal development. They think about it both in Europe and in Asia.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the pandemic only revealed the contradictions that existed before and rooted the creation of a new geopolitical reality, which in fact began to take shape more than four decades ago.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the so-called collective West – intoxicated by its victory – lost control and failed to cope with the functions of a global regulator and guarantor of stability. Now the whole world is paying for it all. We understood this well and therefore made a certain contribution to ensuring global security,” the President emphasised.
The Head of State added that Belarus in the post-Soviet space was among the countries that voluntarily renounced the possession of nuclear weapons, “What did we get in return? Assurances instead of real international legal guarantees, empty, unsubstantiated declarations like the Budapest Memorandum, endless attempts to destabilise the situation in calm, hardworking Belarus, and in 2020, foreign curators almost openly controlled the rebellion.”
According to the Belarusian leader, the same scenario was previously tested in Ukraine, “We see what it all led to. Fortunately, in 2022, we managed to maintain peace on this land: in Kazakhstan.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko reasonably remarked, “How do the practice of organising coups d’état in other countries and the dictate of sanctions punishment towards states that have managed to respond to this challenge fit into the norms of international law? Nobody even asks this question. Our response must be unequivocal: this is unacceptable and carries the risk of igniting a third world war in which there will be no winners.”
