Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in Minsk, requested guarantees that in case of aggression against Belarus, the Russian Federation would defend Belarus “like its own territory”.
Direct speech: “I raised this issue in negotiations with the President of Russia. He fully supported me in all directions. And he says we need to revise all our agreements and treaties with Belarus and Russia, and see what kind of intergovernmental legal act needs to be adopted now to ensure full security of Belarus.
Overall, it was said in the negotiations that in case of aggression against Belarus, the Russian Federation defends Belarus as its own territory. These are the guarantees of security that we need.”
Details: Lukashenko stated that he raised this issue at the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State on April 6 (SSC), but had discussed it with Putin prior to that.
According to the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Western countries are not fulfilling the guarantees of security provided under the Budapest Memorandum in exchange for the withdrawal of nuclear weapons.
Lukashenko stated that under the Budapest Memorandum, “all Western states and Russia pledged to provide full security to Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus”, and this was supposed to include “economic security” – but the West is imposing sanctions against Belarus and Russia.
Direct speech: “What security guarantees can America provide us with? None. Except for provoking aggression against us, as we see now. We need full security guarantees from our fraternal Russia.
And here, as Putin and I parted ways, we touched on this issue again and agreed that you and your experts will come today, and we will seriously discuss this issue in the context of the situation that surrounds us today. Including a special military operation.”
Details: Lukashenko discussed with Shoigu the military training and coordination of the “joint allied grouping,” and also thanked Russia for “keeping several thousand Russian servicemen” in Belarus “despite all the difficulties.”
Shoigu thanked for the provision of 5 training grounds on the territory of Belarus, which involve “a sufficient number of instructors – officers of the Belarusian Armed Forces for training, including our replenishment.”
He said that it could be a matter of “expanding the framework” of the presence of the military group in Belarus.
Reminder: Alexander Lukashenko became an ally of Vladimir Putin in the war against Ukraine, Belarus provided its territory to Russian troops for invasion on February 24, 2022, and for missile strikes on Ukraine for over a year. Belarusian troops are not formally involved in the war, but Lukashenko supports and justifies Putin’s actions.