Meeting of Belarus’ Security Council

For the first time since the mid 20th century the world is one step away from the global confrontation with the most unexpected consequences, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the meeting of the Security Council of Belarus on 13 February.

Belarus’ military security was the main issue on the agenda. There will be a similar meeting next week to discuss the performance of law enforcement agencies. The meeting addressed the key issues of national security. Its participants evaluated the work of the relevant government authorities over the past year and outlined the tasks for the near future.

On global situation

“The world has not become safer. On the contrary, we have witnessed the expansion of geography and the scale of conflicts of interests between the centers of power. This is why the instability is increasing,” the Belarusian leader said.

According to the President, the world failed to resolve any of the ongoing armed conflicts last year. Moreover, new hotspots of tension have emerged, while the political confrontation between the states and coalitions gets formalized in the national strategies. “For the first time since the middle of the last century, the world is one step away from the global confrontation with the most unpredictable consequences,” the President said.

“We are very much concerned over the speculations by some countries regarding nuclear weapons, the militarization of the Eastern European region, and the unprecedented build-up of the military potential in our neighboring countries. This pertains to both their armed forces and defense spending,” he said.

On situation in Ukraine and platform for negotiations

“We are still concerned over the situation in the neighboring country. Belarus continues to host regular meetings of the trilateral contact group. 2017 saw nearly 30 such meetings,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

“I believe that despite the various and quite unexpected statements (unexpected for the public maybe but I totally expected such statements coming), there is no real alternative to this negotiating venue today,” he added.