Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko: The CSTO countries must stand together

MINSK, 20 June (BelTA) - The current situation in the world leaves no doubt that the CSTO countries need to stand together, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with the ministers of foreign affairs of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk on 20 June, BelTA has learned.

According to the head of state, certain areas of responsibility have been formed within the CSTO. “Unfortunately for us and for Russia (because this is our area of responsibility), real military threats to security have emerged on the western flank of the CSTO. These threats are very serious, more serious than anywhere else. The situation in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia is not calm as well (and there is more to come),” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

In this regard, the president mentioned the recent meeting with the minister of foreign affairs of Kazakhstan, adding that the parties discussed, among other things, potential threats, since the neighbors of the country were strong, powerful, and their interests were huge.

“Full-scale hybrid wars have been unleashed against sovereign countries that do not follow the instructions of the West,” the head of state said. “We lived through all this before. Sometimes we do not draw conclusions from the past.”
 
“The current situation in the world leaves us no doubt that we must stand together,” the head of state stressed.

He is convinced that there is no reason to rush into making decisions about withdrawing from any integration associations, as Ukraine or Georgia did with their membership in the CIS. “As for Georgia, you can see a certain change in their policy: they are fed up with Western promises and want to return to our market again, because no one will let your milk, meat or wine into their markets. The markets have long been divided and there is a tough fight for them. This is the second reason why we should stand together. Our market is the second reason. Abroad, if they offer something, they do it in exchange for resources (they support you if you give them resources) or for some certain line of policy (if you follow and support the policy they are pursuing),” the head of state explained.

“There is no need to rush, make things worse for each other and try to somehow get away from each other. We need to stick together, especially in this difficult time,” the president added.

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