Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 31 October (BelTA) – The idea to launch a new international negotiating process is gaining more supporters, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at the opening of the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting in Minsk on 31 October, BelTA has learned.

The head of state recalled that Belarus proposed the idea of a new Helsinki process at the opening of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly summer session in Minsk in July of last year. “Then some said that Belarus was too naive to put forward such a proposal. Some hinted that it was not Belarus’ business. Some even interpreted the Belarusian initiative as a proposal to revise the existing regional security system, which, by the way, does not work. I would like to stress that we have never suggested derailing anything. Today, we see that the idea is gaining more supporters,” the head of state noted.

“Our country believes that when this system fails (it did not prevent bloody conflicts in Europe such as Yugoslavia and Ukraine), we need to take measures to restore its effective work. Or substitute it if we cannot restore it. But this requires a dialogue of all stakeholders,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

According to him, the Belarusian state is in favor of an inclusive dialogue, even if there is no guarantee that it will bring concrete results. “We do not claim the monopoly of this initiative. We understand that its implementation depends on many, especially the key players. But in modern conditions, when the great powers cannot agree, other countries can and should play an important role,” the Belarusian leader said.

Alexander Lukashenko noted that such a dialogue will significantly differ from what it was in the framework of the Helsinki process. “Helsinki-2 is rather a metaphor to signify the essence of the new process – search for modern ways to avoid the danger of a larger conflict. Solutions should not repeat the Cold War recipes. But today, in Europe, there is no consensus on how the updated security system should look like,” the head of state noted.

Nevertheless, the president believes that, despite the lack of political preconditions for launching the new negotiating process, there is a need to look for opportunities to work out its fundamentals, at first by experts and then by key players.