A. Lukashenko: Aggravation of competition between the West and China may break the system of international relations

Against this background, the increase in military expenses in the world and the dismantling of the arms control system are of particular concern. The Open Skies Treaty is crumbling. The Treaty on Measures to Further Reduce and Limit Strategic Offensive Arms, in fact, remains the only existing agreement in this area.The absence of a constructive agenda in the area of arms limitation does not add optimism and maintains military and political tension. The intensification of competition between the West and China is becoming an urgent factor in breaking the system of international relations. The European Union has put forward the "GSE" initiative to strengthen its influence in Asia, which is an alternative to the Chinese "belt and road" .The EU policy, along with economic measures, provides for the further eastward advance of supposedly benchmark democracy and European values. These values are vividly seen in Afghanistan. At the same time, the collective West exerts pressure on sovereign states through restrictions, asymmetric actions, and hybrid influence. All this is happening under the slogan of fighting for someone's rights. But we are well aware that the real motive for such measures is creating open space for their economic interests.

They are trying to make it look like an international hybrid threat to incidents with refugees and migrants. Previously, such issues were easily resolved on a bilateral basis. Attempts are actively being made to shift the responsibility for the migration problem onto the transit countries. And all this after what the United States and its NATO allies have done in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Moreover, the Afghans were called there to Europe by the orders of the United States, and now they refuse to accept them.At the same time, the migration crisis has become a pretext for building up NATO's military potential on the western borders of the CSTO. Our neighbors have already deployed a group of troops in the border area on a permanent basis, it consists of over 10 000 people and more than 50 pieces of heavy equipment. In addition, under the pretext of combating illegal migration in Lithuania, from this month on, new NATO units are used for a hybrid impact on our countries.At the same time, Western countries turn a blind eye to gross violations of their own obligations in the field of human rights. Only in recent weeks on the border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia there have been incidents almost every day, during which immigrants from Afghanistan and other countries are brutally, with the use of weapons, pushed into Belarusian territory. The double standards of the West are also manifested in active attempts to deny the migration problem by putting a fence on the western border of the CSTO.In fact, instead of a dialogue on the solution of pressing international problems, the primitive approaches of the Cold War times are returning.

You are absolutely right, now the whole region is going through very difficult times, first the COVID, then the political issues and of course Afghanistan. As for the relations between our countries, they have existed for a long time. Belarus and Pakistan cooperate closely in agriculture and industry. I hope the visit of the Belarusian delegation will contribute to strengthening of bilateral cooperation.