MINSK. Jan 22 (Interfax) - Belarus has resumed its dialogue with the West, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
"Recently there has been a period when we have not been sniping at, nor attacking one another. We started to talk somehow," Lukashenko said at a meeting with a number of Belarusian media executives in Minsk on Tuesday.
"Lithuania has realized that Belarus is one-third of its budget, and so has Latvia," he said.
"We held a number of events [with European politicians], although not public ones: often many Europeans who come to us ask for this not to be public," the Belarusian president said.
"I talk to them frankly, if they ask me for an audience, I never deny anyone, I talk to everyone, from U.S. congressmen to ordinary politicians and even former ones from Europe. And we have had very many such contacts, a certain dialogue has set in," Lukashenko said. "We do not sit down at the same table and we do not discuss problems (we'll get there), but there is some dialogue which is already good," he added.
Belarus will never befriend the West against Russia, nor will the Belarusian-Russian relations involve any detriment to our cooperation with the Western countries, the president said.
"We want to live on our chunk of land and have our sovereignty. I do not want my people to walk under someone's whip any longer. As the first president I see it as my primary task," Lukashenko said. "Our independence is holy but it also must be clear to our neighbors," he said. "It must not be aggressive. We are not a country, nor a power to be aggressive either towards the West or towards the East," the head of state added.