Belarus’ president, Alexander Lukashenko, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide security guarantees to his country.
On Monday, April 10, he told Russia’s defense minister that he wanted assurances that Moscow would defend his country if it was attacked, according to the state-owned BelTA news agency.
According to BelTA, Lukashenko made the remarks to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting in Belarus’s capital Minsk.
Lukashenko was quoted as saying that he had previously discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said agreed that such security guarantees were necessary and should be formalized.
“In general, it sounded at the talks (with Putin) that in the case of aggression against Belarus, the Russian Federation would protect Belarus as its own territory. These are the kind of security (guarantees) we need,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
Belarus, which currently hosts some Russian forces, has offered assistance to Moscow during its military campaign in Ukraine which Russia calls “a special military operation.”
In the beginning of the war, Minsk allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch an ultimately unsuccessful assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.