MINSK. Sept 26 (Interfax) - Belarus is not befriending the West as an affront to Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told the Ukrainian media on Thursday.
"This is our stance. We will choose the kind of relations we will have with Russia and China, on one hand, and with the EU and the United States, on the other hand," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Lukashenko said he always tells U.S. officials there will be no talks if Belarus is forced to choose between the East and the West.
"None of the Americans, even the high-ranking ones, have ever felt offended. Quite the opposite, some of them anticipated my condition and publicly said before the talks that Belarus does not have to choose but will be asked to help maintain peace and tranquility in Eastern Europe and that they want Belarus to be sovereign and independent," Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko said he wondered why normalization of relations between Minsk and Washington had made Russia worry. "Close cooperation that existed between Russia and the United States in the past did not bother us. After all, we are not befriending America as an affront to Russia: this is ruled out," he said.