MINSK, 23 August (BelTA) – It is with great concern and great attention that Belarus has been watching the developments in Afghanistan, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at an extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council on 23 August, BelTA has learned.
"It is with great concern and great attention that Belarus has been watching the developments in Afghanistan," the head of state said.
The president stressed that the situation should be assessed in a dispassionate manner, as realistically and adequately as possible. "At first glance what is happening is a huge failure of Western policy. This is true, this is a failure of the United States, above all. This is an unequivocal example of what the thoughtless imposition of their so-called principles of democracy by force may lead to. The United States and its allies, as they often do, acted in disregard of the historical, ethno-cultural, religious identity of the state and, most importantly, the interests of the people. Confirmation of it is the chaos at the Kabul airport,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“It could be said that the coalition led by Washington screwed up after 20 years of occupation and investing enormous resources. Let us assume that this is not entirely true. We cannot ignore the possibility of strategic calculation of a completely conscious move by the United States to create instability in the region, and partly in the CSTO area of responsibility. They have created problems. Now they are passing the buck to others and are trying to get away with it. Americans love acting like this,” the head of state said.
The president added that Belarus may not assess the situation in Afghanistan as sharply as Tajikistan, so it is important for Belarus to hear the opinions and assessments of its CSTO allies. “For our part, we see the main questions which we need to answer together: what will happen next, what the situation on the external borders of the CSTO is, what priority steps we have to take to neutralize the emerging threats. We have to define these steps by mid-September, by our next meeting in Dushanbe,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
