Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Friday that he had ordered his government to resume contacts with Poland amid border tensions between Moscow’s ally and its NATO neighbor.
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“It is necessary to talk to the Poles. I have ordered the prime minister to get in touch with them,” he said, quoted by the state news agency Belta.
Tensions between Minsk and Warsaw are currently high amid disagreements over the conflict in Ukraine, with Poland supporting Kiev financially and militarily while Belarus is an ally of Moscow.
Poland, a member of NATO, said Thursday it plans to deploy around 10,000 troops long-term to protect its eastern border with Belarus as a “deterrent”.
According to Lukashenko, the Polish government is aiming for an “escalation to make the situation worse, to show that they have properly armed and rearmed the country” with a view to “(parliamentary) elections next October 15”. Poland.
The Belarusian leader said it was “unlikely” to see “significant changes” in Warsaw’s position within two months that would be “beneficial to them and to us.”
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“They ask a lot from us (…) but we cannot accept that because it would be against our interests,” he said.
According to Warsaw, there is “a simple solution” to ending tensions, but for that Lukashenko would have to meet some “basic conditions”.
If the Belarusian strongman “really wants to improve relations with Poland, he can do it in a very simple way (…): stop attacking our border, the more than a thousand political prisoners and (Belarusian-Polish journalist) Andrzej release.” Poczobut, stop this campaign of hatred, this hybrid war against Poland,” said Pawel Jablonski, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister.
“We have no hostile intentions towards Belarus and have never had any,” he told Polsat TV.
However, according to Jablonski, “Lukashenko’s words continue to contradict his actions”.