MINSK, 28 January (BelTA) – The West has done everything to ensure that Belarus ceases to be a source of peace, but we will be persistent and consistent on the way to peace, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he delivered the Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly in Minsk on 28 January, BelTA has learned.
"We are keepers of peace. We have repeatedly contributed to the settlement of conflicts in the post-Soviet space, offered all available resources to bring to the negotiating table Armenia and Azerbaijan (remember, the Minsk format), the warring parties to the conflict in the east of Ukraine, painstakingly built the architecture of the belt of good-neighborliness," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The president noted that Belarus our forward an initiative to launch a new negotiation process Helsinki-2 and invested a lot of effort to promote it. It has already been picked up by European politicians. However, the West has shamefully kept mum on its authorship, the head of state emphasized. "We will give you this initiative for free. The main thing is that it is implemented," he added.
"We were a donor of stability and peace in the region. But in 2020, they began to paint us an aggressor. What for? Who needed it then and needs it now? The West has done everything to ensure that Belarus ceases to be a source of peace in this region. Therefore, we should not be reproached for what is happening. That's what you wanted. No matter what, we will be persistent and consistent on the path to peace. After all, if a conflict breaks out, it will remain local. The whole region will be set on fire," the Belarusian leader said.
