Opinions & Interviews

Vytoki festival seen as contributor to regional development
"The festival combines physical education, culture and art. The event is held in the Year of People’s Unity, which is also very symbolic. The aim of the festival is to showcase the development of the district and its features. It's not just a sporting event. Seminars and educational programs were held for two days before the official opening. Vytoki [roots in Belarusian] is where it all begins, where everything, culture and sport"...

Lukashenko: West aims to reach Russia, eliminate Belarus as a competitor
"We need to pull ourselves together and stand out. You see this mounting pressure on Russia, but they cannot jump through Belarus. We cannot turn ourselves into Ukraine. We cannot fight against Russia, Russian people. These are our nearest and dearest. This is the reason for this uproar"...

Lukashenko: Belarus is able to consume all nuclear energy made by BelNPP
“I want to ask you to keep calm and not to fret about what to do with extra energy and where to sell it. If we act in a smart way, we will use it up and even need more. This is a super clean source of energy, it is needed everywhere: from housing to manufacturing and for the nuclear power plant itself,” the president noted...

Call to rejuvenate Kupala Night Festival, keeping its national element
This year’s edition of the festival will be held on 10 July and will be running for one day. As always, it will take place on the bank of the Dnieper River in the agro-town of Alexandria in Shklov District. The agro-town is already gearing up for the festival. The Belarusian president announced the start of the preparations during the national cleanup day...

Makei: Belarus is reliable, predictable partner
"The coronavirus pandemic has become a serious challenge for all countries, affecting business and personal contacts. It is gratifying that the situation is gradually improving, we are returning to the usual format of interaction"...

Africa viewed as one of key elements of Belarus’ multipronged foreign policy
"We have a similar stance on the international agenda. This creates a favorable background for promoting trade and economic relations, which is a priority area of ​​cooperation. We are not starting from scratch, we have a long history of friendship,” the diplomat said. He deems it fundamentally important that these relations were built on the principles of mutual respect, equality and equal consideration of the interests of each of the parties...

FM: Belarusians will not tolerate diktat towards their country
"I am convinced that today the majority of the people will unite in this situation and will support sovereignty, and independence, and autonomy in foreign and domestic policy in spite of this pressure"...

Lukashenko: CIS has proved to be successful, resilient
The president stated that these countries have a huge experience of several generations, centuries-old traditions of friendship and good-neighborliness, the power of spiritual unity. “That is what we have demonstrated together with you. We have what we have inherited from our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, our parents who won the most terrible war of the last century”...

Lukashenko: All CIS states should take action to address common regional issues
“It is already at our doorstep. Of course, we are facing certain challenges. There is no escaping that. Even the Soviet Union experienced difficulties, and those difficulties were quite serious! They became particularly obvious after the collapse of the Soviet Union. No big project can proceed smoothly. At the same time, the public should see progress and results of our work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said...

Belarus’ presidency in CIS hailed as successful
Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev said as he met with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko...

Chinese ambassador: Belarus, China will protect their development interests together
The diplomat stressed that at the event the Belarusian head of state paid a lot of attention to the cooperation with China...

Lukashenko about flag incident in Riga: Such things inspire the feeling of patriotism in us
At the same time Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that there is nothing good, for instance, in the mutual expulsion of diplomats from Belarusian and Latvian embassies...

Lukashenko: Belarus is a strong and independent country of proud people
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the state will always guard interests of the nation and every person while any attempts to destroy people’s wellbeing will be suppressed...

Lukashenko to global community: There is no use trying to destabilize situation in Belarus
"We should preserve our country and pass it on to our children in a normal condition. We should not hand problems down to our children and grandchildren, we should solve them now. The time has chosen us. We have found ourselves on the frontline of a new cold, even freezing cold war. Only countries that will be able to resist this hybrid pressure will hold out"...

Lukashenko on situation with Latvian embassy: Belarus has done what sovereign states do
“In the situation with the Latvian embassy and the expulsion of the diplomatic mission Belarus has done what a sovereign nation-state having the right to act like that does,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said...

Russian FM: Actions of Belarusian aviation authorities in line with international rules
The actions of the Belarusian aviation authorities in the situation with the Ryanair aircraft were in line with the international rules, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry...

Belarus ready to invite international experts to probe into Ryanair plane landing in Minsk
"We are ready to conduct a transparent investigation of this incident involving relevant international specialists. As far as I know no EU country, no Western country has requested information on this case from the Belarusian side for the time being," Vladimir Makei stressed...

No plans to amend election laws prior to referendum on Belarusian Constitution
In her words, the referendum will be organized in line with the existing rules and regulations. “But I am convinced all the consequent elections will be organized in line with improved norms that will take into account all the societal challenges that occurred during the latest campaign to elect the president of the Republic of Belarus”...

Call for EAEU's active alignment with China’s Belt and Road initiative
The head of state believes that at the current stage of the dialogue with Chinese partners it is advisable to focus on the development of digital transport corridors. “It is also necessary to promote the export of our products to China. With regard to food it is necessary to optimize veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control”...

FM talks about Belarus’ future
"The future of Belarus largely depends on whether allies and partners in Eurasia and the world can come to an agreement with each other. Our security and wellbeing are inseparably linked to this factor"...