MINSK, 8 October (BelTA) – Belarus is concerned about the level of mistrust and confrontation between East and West reaching its limit, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he spoke at the international conference European Security: Stepping Back from the Brink on 8 October, BelTA has learned.
“We cannot but care that the degree of mistrust and confrontation between East and West has reached its limit. Security and disarmament experts on both sides are already painting a picture which is terrible in its credibility. In just a few minutes, Russia and NATO, for example, can go from an unintended local conflict to nuclear war,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
In his words, after the recent withdrawal of the key parties - the United States and Russia - from the INF Treaty, the process of destroying the arms control architecture is heading into the homestretch.
“The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is the final frontier. If the parties do not agree on its extension, in just two years (as far as I know by 2021) the world will find itself in a situation where relations in the field of nuclear weapons will not be regulated at all. Mankind is moving towards a line beyond which there is indeed an abyss,” the president said.
At the same time, the head of state admitted that the big powers have reasons to treat each other with distrust. “Unfriendly or even aggressive actions in the past perpetuate mutual suspicions and fears for years to come,” he added. “We need to return to the concept of European security based on cooperation, to the values of Helsinki and its final act, the Charter of Paris for a New Europe. We all urgently need a strong success story that will convince even the fierce skeptics and ‘hawks' that despite deep contradictions and misunderstanding, security interests in Europe are absolutely compatible.”
