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Degradation of global security: Lukashenko names four dimensions under attack

Comprehensive security, by definition, should provide guarantees to states not only in military dimension but also in the political, economic, information and other fields, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the 2nd Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security on 31 October, BelTA learned. 

In his speech, Aleksandr Lukashenko outlined his vision of the problems and ways to solve them. According to him, before talking about global security, it is important to define the concept itself. 

"As a rule, speaking of security, we mean guarantees against encroachment on a nation’s territory. However, comprehensive security, by definition, should provide guarantees to states not only in military dimension but also in the political, economic, information and other field. If you look at it from this angle, we see the scale of the crisis in the world," the president said.

According to him, having appropriated the title of the leader of the free world after the collapse of the entire socialist camp, and despite all its potential, the United States proved incapable of being a global support and guarantor of security in the broadest sense of the term.International institutions, designed to be a universal mediator or arbitrator, often demonstrate complete paralysis.

“The absence of checks and balances has led to the degradation of security in all sectors,” the Belarusian leader said. 

First. Political dimension 

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the collapse of all tenets of democracy is evident.

“We see that there is a democracy for the domestic use, and there is democracy for export. What democratic values can explain the developments in the Middle East and Ukraine? Is it truly democratic to try to physically eliminate a person whom, for example, the United States and its satellites decide to consider a threat to national security? Anyone - from a political and public figure to a businessman, scientist or journalist,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.  “Or a new ‘democratic’ trend - to threaten heads of sovereign states with the International Criminal Court,” the president added.

"What does democracy have to do with declaring the UN secretary general persona non grata for his principled position that he expressed candidly? How should we regard the relentless attacks on António Guterres for attending the BRICS summit, a group of countries contributing almost 40% to the world’s GDP?" Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.

The president pointed out that not only individual leaders but entire nations come under attacks. Thus, the states that dare to follow their own path face color revolutions. They bring loyal leaders and puppets to power via the so-called non-governmental or non-profit organizations – the West’s "soft power".

"The rampant ‘democracy’ has led to a bad split of civil society. We are observing dangerous developments in Germany, France, Poland, Moldova, Georgia and others. The United States has found itself in a turbulent situation for the last decade," Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.

The head of state noted that the migrant crisis was one of the reasons for today's events in the world. According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the deaths and beatings of refugees and migrants in the territory of the collective West have become a terrible daily reality. The world media are silent about it, while accusations of Belarus in the creation of this crisis do not leave the front pages.

“We are blamed for this global migrant crisis. The main route of these people, however, has not changed for many years. Up to half a million people pass through the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkan Peninsula every year. Europe is unable to restore order at home, but it knows well how to distract its people from internal problems by appointing an external enemy,” the president stressed.

Second. Military security

“States are increasingly forced to use military force to defend their sovereignty and internal stability or to prevent escalation. Further escalation of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East can cause irreparable damage on a global scale,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

According to the head of state, by focusing only on these two hotbeds, the world somehow ignores the fact that there are about 55 armed conflicts today. Thousands of people die in them every day. “Let’s take the Yemen conflict for an example. It is allegedly inconvenient for the collective West to bring it to light,” the president said. “But if we talk about the perspective, then the Middle East and Ukraine combined may not seem like much. A catastrophe that we can’t imagine may happen over there, in the Indian Ocean and in the gulf that the Houthis control today.”

In his words, there are actually no legitimate international legal instruments left to form guarantees in military security. By and large, there are only two treaties left: on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and on strategic offensive arms.

“The first one is practically not implemented, and the second one is obsolete. What is especially telling is that no work is being done to conclude new agreements in this area. This means someone does not need them. This is primarily on the conscience of politicians, not the military,” the Belarusian leader said.

Third. Economy

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, half of the world is targeted with illegal sanctions. Entire sectors of the economy have been paralyzed by illegitimate restrictions, and the right of private property has been destroyed. “State assets are arrested and sovereign financial resources are simply plundered. Gas pipelines are being blown up and access to the sea is being cut off,” the president named some of the threats.

In his words, the purchase of goods of Western brands is no longer a guarantee of technological safety, because at any moment they can refuse to supply spare parts or provide service.

“The system of international division of labor, which we built with such efforts, has been undermined. Is the next step the expansion of protectionism and closed economies. Are we going to move backward, not forward?” the head of state said.

In the age of high technology, the issue of food shortages is still on the agenda. “The scale of hunger on the planet is already approaching the figures of the post-war years (about 750 million people are chronically hungry; almost 3 billion more are undernourished). What do you call it?" the president asked.

The countries exporting food, fertilizers, and farm machines have no way to supply their products to where they are badly needed. This is done for political reasons.

"While being designed to destroy national economies, the sanctions are actually working against ordinary people. Under such conditions, there can be no question of any fulfillment of obligations under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It is quite obvious that without the illegal sanctions and restrictions of the West, the world would have moved much closer to reaching these goals,” the Belarusian leader said.

Information security

“Mass media have been weaponized. Post-truth, endless fakes, manipulation of public opinion, seizure of financial resources, orchestration of coups have become transnational and can rival a military intervention. You better not go against their plans. They act totally on a whim,” the head of state emphasized.

There are increasing attempts to use cutting-edge solutions in the field of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, neural networks, and quantum physics to destroy humanity. “Humankind will be shocked to learn about real activities of U.S. biolaboratories around the world, especially along the perimeter of Belarus and Russia,” the head of state said.

“I could spend hours listing these ‘achievements’ of Western civilization. The term ‘Western civilization’ can be put in quotation marks. At one time, when Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization, he replied that he thought it might be a good idea,” the president quoted the famous politician and philosopher.