Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin discuss possibility of mirror response to West

Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin discuss possibility of mirror response to West

Mirroring measures in the military sphere, growth of trade turnover, investments in joint ventures and shipment of fertilizers to the new Belarusian port in St. Petersburg.

These are the issues touched upon during the meeting between the Presidents of Belarus and Russia. Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin had informal talks in Moscow suburbs. And on Saturday, on the day of the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, they also had a meeting in St. Petersburg.

The heads of state began with economic issues. Belarus will soon produce import-substituting products in cooperation with Russia. Fifteen major projects have been approved. Belarus is pleased with its mutual trade. Last year, it amounted to nearly USD 40 billion.

This is the maximum over the last nine years. Another very important issue is mutual security.

Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus:

“The situation and the confrontation policy pursued by our neighbors are very tense. You, of course, know, this is the leadership of Poland and the leadership of Lithuania. And you have enough mercenaries from Poland, especially in Ukraine. I don't understand why they want confrontation, but it's clear that they are standing behind their backs, pushing them, and this policy is disgusting, their behavior is aggressive, the same pertains to Lithuania - lately there was information about their intentions to stop transit from Russia through Belarus to Kaliningrad, to isolate Kaliningrad. Look, this is akin to a declaration of war, this is unacceptable in today's conditions. 

"We are very concerned about the issues of training flights by US and NATO aircraft that can carry nuclear warheads. We are very concerned about this. So I ask you to consider a mirror response to these things. Without overdoing it. They are training to carry nuclear warheads. You please help us at least adapt our planes that thee could carry nuclear warheads. I'm not talking about us moving nuclear warheads there tomorrow. But we can't joke about it. We remember 1941, when we were lulled into saying, "Everything will be fine, everything is quiet, no one will attack. And then we were not prepared for it. That is why the situation is very serious for us. This is not the first time I have asked you this question. I know you have considered it in the Defence Ministry. I am not hiding, I am raising the question that we could be ready for anything, even in the use of the most serious weapons, to defend our Fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok - that is our immediate duty. If they train, they must be thinking about something! Here's a set of defence and security issues we have to discuss seriously so that people, Russians and Belarusians, knew that they are under serious protection," said the President of Belarus. 

In his turn, Vladimir Putin, speaking of security issues, drew attention to the fact that the Americans keep 200 tactical nuclear warheads in Europe (mainly nuclear bombs), which are located in six European countries - members of the North Atlantic bloc of NATO. "There are 257 aircraft prepared for their possible use, and not only American aircraft, but also those countries I have mentioned," the Russian President explained.

He also responded to the Belarusian head of state's remark that the U.S. actions could be mirrored: "We could. But you and I should probably not even answer in a mirror, there is no need. But I totally agree with you that we have to take care of our security and the security of the Union State and maybe other countries of the CSTO as well."

"Therefore, I propose the following," the Russian President continued. - The Belarusian army has quite a large group of SU-25 aircraft in service. They could be re-equipped, but this modernization would have to be carried out at Russian aircraft factories (we will agree with you how to do it), and the training of flight personnel could begin accordingly.  In the next few months we will transfer Iskander-M surface-to-air missile systems to Belarus. They are able to use both ballistic and cruise missiles both in conventional and nuclear versions," Vladimir Putin added. He suggested that the defence ministers and the chiefs of general staff of the two countries were instructed to work out all the details related to this.