Lukashenko in Baku congratulated Armenia on the loss of Karabakh and stocked up on non-Russian oil
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko paid an official visit to Azerbaijan. He negotiated with his colleague Ilham Aliyev about the purchase of oil and the sale of weapons.
The first deliveries of Azerbaijani oil to Belarus went last year, when Lukashenko did not reach an agreement with Russia. Even after a severe political crisis, in which the Belarusian president was supported only by Moscow, he is not going to give up “alternative” expensive oil. Its supplies will increase this year from 800 thousand tons to a million. Lukashenko emphasized that “we are not bothering anyone.”
“We, perhaps, I thought this morning, should consider the issue of deepening our relations in this area, which is, of course, very delicate and sensitive due to the fact that Belarus is located at the epicenter of economic and political events. But there are no unsolvable issues,” Lukashenko said.
He also promised to continue supplying weapons to Azerbaijan.
“As for the military-industrial complex, here is the former Minister of Defense of Belarus, now the ambassador. Any demand of the ambassador in the military-industrial complex will be implemented. In those areas that we can and that our friends in Azerbaijan need,” Lukashenko said.
In addition, he plans to sell the Sputnik vaccine to Azerbaijan, which Belarus produces using technology transferred from Russia.
Lukashenko expects to receive orders from Aliyev for work in post-war Nagorno-Karabakh. This looks rather cynical if we remember that Belarus and Armenia, which lost the war, are allies in the CSTO.
The Belarusian president is not at all embarrassed by this fact. He congratulated the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples “on the end of the tragedy that lasted 30 years.”
“I always asked the question: in Karabakh people are happy that they live under this oppression. This problem needs to be solved somehow. Today I really want to congratulate the people of Azerbaijan and the people of Armenia on the end of this sad period in their history. The President is great. He said: we want to turn this page. God grant that this trouble will be leveled out, so that there will be no fragments in the souls of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples,” Lukashenko said.
He believes that “Azerbaijan has taken a great step in achieving its national dream.”
“You, as a true friend of the Belarusian people, understand that there is a lot of hard work ahead to restore life in the returned territories. You should know that your reliable friends are in Belarus. If we agree, we will always implement our agreements,” Lukashenko said.
Belarusian political scientist Igor Tyshkevich, who fled to Kyiv, recalls that 70% of Azerbaijani air defense and anti-drone systems were supplied from Belarus. That is why in the last war there were no examples of successful Armenian air attacks. Tyshkevich believes that Belarus will continue to supply weapons to Azerbaijan. Moreover, this country, together with Turkey, can finance the creation of new types of weapons. Türkiye has already bought technology for creating unmanned helicopters from Belarus.
In his opinion, Lukashenko wants to “demonstrate the so-called eastern turn.”
“It is worth considering two things: weapons and the shadow, on the one hand, of Erdogan, on the other, of Putin over this meeting. Turkey is a regional power that has an interest in the Black Sea, including in Belarus... The presidents will talk about peaceful construction and restoration of territories. Real agreements will be more interesting. The question is what part of them will be public, and how many Belarusian military-industrial complex companies will be involved in Azerbaijani contracts. I estimate the limits of this cooperation from 4 to 7 billion,” Tyszkiewicz said in his video blog.
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