MINSK. Sept 2 (Interfax) - Western countries are seeking to turn Belarus into another global hot spot, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.
"The [West's] goal is to turn Belarus into yet another hot spot on the world map," Lukashenko said in his remarks to students of Vitebsk State University.
The unlawful sanctions and other restrictions and the chauvinistic, nationalistic, and other destructive ideologies flourishing in the West are links of the same chain, Lukashenko said. "They are focused on the sole goal of preserving the world order based on their rules in any possible way. Rules that guarantee them prosperous lives chiefly at the expense of us and other developing countries," Lukashenko said.
"And they're dragging us into this confrontation, so far in the economic, scientific, and technological fields. But their goal is to turn Belarus into another hot spot on the world map," he said.
The only chance for Belarus to avoid this scenario, preserve itself as a state, and avert a great war on its soil is "to carry out a new scientific and technical revolution in an accelerated format," he said.
Lukashenko mentioned the nuclear weapons possessed by Russia as playing an important deterring role. "And what if this didn't exist? If there had been no Soviet nuclear shield concentrated in Russia, we wouldn't have existed. They don't know what to do to us these days. If they try to treat us in a harsher way, there'd be a nuclear strike in response. And then the entire planet would die," he said.