Events

29 May 2026

Lukashenko dubs Macron EU’s ‘aksakal’, invites him to Minsk, calls on him to drive peace talks

ASTANA, 29 May (BelTA) - Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to be a driving force in advancing peace dialogue and has invited him to come to Minsk. The Belarusian head of state told the media in Astana about the details of the presidents’ telephone conversation on 24 May, BelTA has learned.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the discussion with the French president touched on Ukrainian issues, among other topics. “We ended with Ukraine and the consequences if we, together with the Russians, were to attack Ukraine from the north. ‘You do understand,’ he said, ‘that we would be forced to respond?’ I said: ‘You don’t need to respond, you need to strive for peace.’ ‘But we are striving,’ he said. I said: ‘If you were striving for peace, then during that gathering in Yerevan [at the European Political Community meeting in May 2026]... Well, maybe coming to Moscow wouldn’t be ideal for you, but you could have come to Minsk, and Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and I would have met you there’. That’s how it went, jokingly. He said: ‘I don’t rule out that meeting.’ I said: ‘Then it is necessary to call Putin. Come, sit down, and have a man-to-man talk’,” the head of state shared the details of the conversation.

In response to this proposal, Emmanuel Macron said that he would need to consult further within the European Union. The Belarusian president emphasized during the conversation that the current French president should be the driving force behind this process: “I said: ‘Hold on, you are an aksakal, you’ve been in power for so many years! And who else is there? Merz is a very young politician. Starmer is also quite young. Who is going to talk? They’re all young. In Italy, there’s a woman prime minister. Do you want to put this burden on a woman? You are the aksakal - start making moves. You are, so to speak, the main figure and the driving force in Europe today. You went to Armenia - well, now you need to come to us and talk, whether in Moscow or in Minsk. And resolve this issue through dialogue’.”