Lukashenko comments on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, problems in CSTO

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas on 1 November to discuss the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The head of state spoke frankly on this and other issues related to the situation in the CSTO, including Belarus' position on the matter, BelTA has learned.

“This conflict [between Armenia and Azerbaijan] must be settled. God forbid we let the conflict on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan flare up. This is unacceptable. We must put an end to this. That is not good that we cannot stop these conflicts in the CSTO. We should discuss these issues very seriously at the next session of the CSTO,” the Belarusian leader said.

According to him, Belarus has initiated a number of discussions within the CSTO, including those related to the media, analysis and crisis response. “There are a lot of issues. We need to act in order to avoid being called a paper tiger or something else. There are probably some who do not want to work. We need to work with those who want to make the CSTO a strong political and military organization. This is the position of Belarus. We are all for it. But we are against playing games and using the CSTO as a tool to settle some internal political problems. Everyone has them, but that is not why we have set up the CSTO,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.