MINSK, 21 July (BelTA) – The EU needs) to be friends with Belarus and Russia, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with AFP in Minsk on 21 July, BelTA has learned.
"Once I expressed this crazy idea. If you, Europeans, were on friendly terms with us, Belarusians and Russians, the alliance would be invincible, economically, financially, technologically, and militarily. We wouldn't fight against anyone. Huge resources and territory in the east and highest technology in the west, Germany and so on. You would greatly benefit from it. But you can't enforce that policy. You are not allowed to. Now the euro hit the parity with the U.S. dollar. Americans are doing fine. Can't you see that? You see everything, you understand everything," the Belarusian leader said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that Western Europe no longer has politicians of the caliber of Charles de Gaulle or Jacques Chirac, Helmut Kohl or even Angela Merkel. "Look at what is happening in the UK. There's political turmoil in Italy. You see what is happening in Eastern European countries: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia. There, the government approval ratings are at 15-20%. If the elections are held fairly, the current Duda-Morawiecki duo will be swept away. This is what will happen," the head of state is sure.
He urged to keep things simple and play nice with each other. "We are ready for this. Especially Russia. Russia doesn't need anything. It has got it all. It needs peace, trade. It needs to sell gas, and you need to buy it. Why are you putting up barriers? Buy this gas, pay. Why are you imposing sanctions. Well, a billion people [the combined West] cannot sanction 6-7 billion," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He is sure that all these actions will eventually come back to hurt those who imposed them: "You are pushing the world to change and you are not going to like its transformation. Do you think Iran, Russia and Turkey (a NATO country) just gathered for nothing in Iran? No. Then there's also India, China. They don't support you. They don't need war. Even South Korea, not to mention North Korea. Even Japan. They don't need it. They've had enough of wars. They want to live in peace. Why have you sent the whole world into a spin? You don't have to do that."
