English

Lukashenka speaks against revolutions, drastic political changes in address to university students

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka spoke against revolutions and drastic political changes while visiting Belarusian State University on September 1, the first day of the new academic year.

Noting that Belarus “reached its limit of upheavals and wars” in the 20th century, Mr. Lukashenka said that the country needed “quiet, steady development, internal peace and stability.”

“We are ready to use foreign experience but not copy it blindly. And since we have proclaimed a ‘state for the people,’ we must build it proceeding from the people’s demands, not from abstract theoretical models,” the government’s news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

Mr. Lukashenka called on university students to become “consistent, caring defenders of Belarus’ interests, people, of the Belarusian path of development.” “A country’s own independent foreign policy is the basis of sovereignty. In fact, the possibility to determine our own fate, independently build relations with the nearest and far-away friends for the sake of the Belarusian people’s interests is independence,” he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Lukashenka said that the present-day world “increasingly resembles a fragile house of glass where the walls will crumble if you throw a stone at the neighbor.” “As we see the strategy of conflicts, blackmail and threats played out long ago. In order to preserve equilibrium, both great powers and medium-sized and small states have to look for ways of coexistence and cooperation,” he said.

In a separate message of greetings to teachers on the occasion of the first day of school, Mr. Lukashenka described them as the “reliable support of the state.” // BelaPAN