BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
20/08/2009
Belarus speaking in favor of open, frank dialogue with West, says Pres
MINSK, August 20 (Itar-Tass) - Republic of Belarus speaks in favor of an open and frank dialogue with the West but it rejects the attempts of issue unacceptable conditions to it, President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters Thursday as he visited the northern Vitebsk region.
"We're ready for discussions with the European Union on all the problems and it looks like this dialogue is going on well enough," Lukashenko said.
He warned the West, however, that the latter should not dictate unacceptable terms to Belarus out of a conviction that the Belarussians have no other place to go anyway, as its relations with Russia are deteriorating.
"I'd like to say we have good and even excellent relations with Russia and if some quarters in the West think they can make a ploy of the situation and put some kind of pressure on Lukashenko, then they are mistaken," the President said.
He admitted the presence of certain problems in relations with Russia but said they do not mean a real deterioration of Russian-Belarussian relations in general.
"Only those who don't do anything don't have problems," Lukashenko said.
"I'd like to see a frank, decent and honest dialogue on the part of the Europeans," he said. "Let them stop trying to bully us and make us bow to them."
"We'll survive anyway, we'll go to live in hideouts with dirt floors but we'll ensure sovereignty and normal life for our people," Lukashenko said with an apparent hint at the way the Belarussian antifascist guerillas lived in the forests during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union /from 1941 through 1944 on Belarussian territory/.
Source:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14254902&PageNum=0
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