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It is necessary to take a critical look at the situation in the CIS instead of burying heads in the sand. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement at a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “I'd like to begin my speech with the basics. Let me remind you that the key purpose of creating the Commonwealth was to prevent the disruption of ties after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our competitors in the West were and are not happy about that. The West keeps attempting to shake us loose, to weaken us, and subjugate us. Georgia was the first country to withdraw from our association. Ukraine is de facto no longer with us. There are big problems with Moldova. Regretfully, Armenia doesn't always act in the spirit of partnership.”

The head of state underlined that it is impossible to calmly watch what is happening from the sidelines: “Otherwise, we will be simply torn apart. And ordinary people, the peoples of our countries will be the first ones to suffer. This is why we, the heads of state have to abide by the will of our voters. And we have to at least accomplish and address the tasks we've promised to accomplish. As a matter of principle, now is the time to take a more critical look at the situation in our Commonwealth. After all, we see that all the chronic conflicts that we were saddled with back in the day inevitably produce very sad consequences. Thank god, a trend towards the resolution of these conflicts has emerged and some of the conflicts have been successfully resolved.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko also remarked that the current generation of politicians, who were born and raised in the Soviet Union, should be the ones to address the existing tasks: “We have knowledge and experience. It is unlikely that today's young people will be up to the task. Most of them already don't understand many values and advantages, which united us and still unite us for now.”

“If we accomplish that, those, who believe the local issues can be resolved somewhere else, by someone from across the ocean, will rejoin us. But people over there have trouble finding our countries on the map,” the Belarusian leader noted.