MINSK, 18 August (BelTA) - The situation inside Poland is pushing the country to build relations with Belarus, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya TV channel, BelTA has learned.
The head of state was asked about the recent statement by Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Tomasz Siemoniak who said that there is the basis for agreements with Minsk regarding some complex issues, opening the border crossings.
“Well, I would like to know what that basis is. It is a very good statement. They should be at war neither with Russia nor with Belarus. They need to engage in economic cooperation, move away from militarization, which they carry out with the help of the United States,” the head of state said. “Poles are no fools. They lived together with us in the socialist camp, and they have this in their DNA, very deeply rooted in them. They are no fools. What [Polish President Andrzej] Duda did before, and what [Polish Prime Minister Donald] Tusk is doing now together with Duda is rejected by the majority of the Polish population. Therefore, their internal situation pushes them to build these relations. Unfortunately, I do not see this basis.”
As for the closure of border checkpoints, Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that Belarus is not bothered.
“It is all the same both for Russia and Belarus. They (the European Union and the United States) have imposed sanctions against us. We do not go there, I mean, we do not export anything there. Why are they waving this 'white flag' that has nothing to do with the kind of policy that would be in our interests? We do not trade with them. They have decided to close the border. Let them keep it like that,” the president of Belarus said.
He recalled that the European Union, including Poland stopped cooperating with Belarus on border issues. “They imposed sanctions, stopped border cooperation with us. We said we have no readmission agreement with you anymore. The document was denounced [in October 2021, Belarus passed a law on the suspension of the agreement with the EU on the readmission of persons staying without authorization]. They stopped building these centers [temporary accommodation for migrants on the territory of Belarus]. We told them that we are not going to accumulate migrants in our country. And these migrants headed there. It is a disaster for them, for the whole European Union. Where am I wrong?” Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview.
“The second catastrophe for them was when we agreed with Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] to transfer tactical nuclear weapons here,” the Belarusian leader added.
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