MINSK, 1 July (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on the recent talks with U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg in Minsk following the official part of his address at a solemn assembly held on 1 July in anticipation of Independence Day, BelTA has learned.
“We did not trade concessions. It was a respectful conversation. And besides, why does such a question arise? We are not groveling before anyone, like some others west of us are doing,” the head of state remarked. “Neither I nor anyone else is crawling or begging for anything. We are capable of providing for ourselves. We know how to work.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the talks primarily focused on the situation in the world. “The fact that your president is involved in discussions about the state of affairs in the world is already a good sign. It means our opinion is taken into account,” the head of state remarked.
He noted that he has never shied away from speaking with individuals who, as diplomats say, are not his equals in status. “What matters is that people come to you and want to talk. Those who, after 2020, could not even bring themselves to say the word ‘president’, today come to see the president. They recognize that Belarus has a president and it is necessary to talk with him, as he speaks on behalf of the Belarusian people. This is the basis of our dialogue with the United States,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He explained that the talks were initiated by the United States through Belarusian representatives. The meeting with Keith Kellogg was the fourth or fifth in a series of recent contacts with U.S. officials. “Let me emphasize again: I have spoken with professionals, experts who draft documents (every country has them), who advise leaders and present them with proposed legal frameworks,” the president noted. “He [Keith Kellogg] answers to Trump for progress on Ukraine. They say that Trump is particularly fond of such positions as a special envoy. A special envoy has a team that handles issues the way the U.S. president or another authority sees fit. This is who I negotiated with. We reached the point where some fairly high-level individuals came and at Trump’s request conveyed a number of proposals to me,” he added.
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that he is a responsible person and views flattery and praise as a burden. “I am terribly afraid of letting you down. That’s the heaviest burden for me. I have not forgotten where I came from, I have not forgotten what I must do. And believe me, the most important thing for me is not to let you down. That’s a law for me, in all my negotiations and conversations… I have no personal interest; I serve the interests of the state and our people. Being the first president, I will be judged by those who come after me. And when I do something today on your behalf, I think about how those who follow me will do the same: honor memory, care for people, work hard, strive to feed and clothe the nation. This is the perspective I spoke from when negotiating with the United States,” the president stressed.
“Don’t think we were groveling before anyone, as one of the self-exiled opposition says, who I made a decision to pardon. The Americans didn’t even ask. They consider him pro-Russian. It will be difficult for him to shake it off. We keep quiet. You understand we have plenty of facts. But let them be. We don’t interfere in anyone’s personal life. I have strictly forbidden those who know things to meddle in private matters. We must rise above all that nonsense,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “He brags: ‘If Trump utters a word, he will run and release anyone, and so on’. The moment Trump decides to go on about this (our journalists have already mentioned this), all conversations with the United States will stop.”
The president also noted that discussions with U.S. representatives were conducted with dignity. “We often tell them: If anything is wrong in our relations, it was your fault, you wanted this. What kind of negotiations can we have with people who have imposed insane sanctions on us, who have waged war against us, primarily an economic war. A war of annihilation. They don’t deny it. So you understand the main issue. I don’t even raise it directly: I conduct the talks in such a way that it hangs in the air. This allows them to understand what concerns us and what our interests are,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“And when you (this is key) evaluate my actions, ‘Lukashenko has released someone’ and so on, first, I always say: don’t rush to conclusions. Time will put everything in its place. Second, I cannot say everything publicly. That would be wrong,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.
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