Фото: president.gov.by
Belarus does not want to act as a mediator in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia but considers itself an interested party, Aliaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview with Al Arabiya. He believes that negotiations should involve Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Lukashenka said the sides must reach a compromise. He said he has ideas on how this could be achieved but does not want to disclose them.
“If both sides come to realise — not only Putin and Zelenskyy, but also European leaders — that this is a dead end, that things cannot continue this way, that further escalation will only make the situation worse… If that understanding takes hold among those fighting and among their supporters, then a compromise can be reached.
What specific steps could be taken to reach a compromise? I have my own view on this. I do not want to talk about it because it will be decided at the negotiating table, and it will not be me making that decision, but the parties directly involved in this conflict,” Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka said he dislikes mediation and does not seek for Belarus to become a mediator in the settlement process.
“I cannot stand it. Why? When relations between the West and Belarus deteriorated, there were many willing to act as mediators. At the time, I said: thank you, no need, we will try to reach an agreement without mediators.
In general, I do not like mediation. Philosophically speaking, you end up caught between two millstones and can simply be ground up and spat out. We know our place. We do not possess enormous resources, like China, for example. Or certain other countries that are eager to push themselves forward in order to become mediators,” Lukashenka said.
Belarus should participate not as a mediator but as an interested party, and negotiations should ultimately be conducted by Lukashenka, Putin and Zelenskyy, he said.
“Because the war is taking place practically in our backyard. We do not want this war because we could suffer just as Ukrainians and Russians are suffering. From the very beginning, I believed that this conflict should be stopped and that peace agreements should be reached between the parties to the conflict.
And afterwards, only we — the three Slavic peoples — having reached an agreement, will somehow have to deal with the consequences. Just look: neither Americans nor Europeans are going to invest there. It is foreign land to them.
We need to survive this conflict, sit down at the negotiating table — Lukashenka, Putin and Zelenskyy — and agree on how we will overcome its consequences. We must resolve this issue. I proposed this long ago. That proposal has not disappeared and has not been forgotten.
I think that Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, who is not a foolish man, will eventually understand… He will overcome (as will others) grievances, ambitions and the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people, and we will begin to negotiate,” Lukashenka said.