A. Lukashenko: Belarus has established itself as an independent state

June 22, Minsk /BELTA/. Belarus has established itself as an independent state. This fact was stated today by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with young social scientists at the Museum of Modern Belarusian Statehood, BELTA reports. "Having received a chance in the early 1990s, we used it to the fullest. In just two decades - a negligible moment by historical standards, experiencing incredible external pressure at times, we have essentially created a new European country," the head of state noted. "Our young state has shown that even a small country can command respect and pursue an independent foreign policy course," the President said. "You see how the West treats us now, and even the East doesn't always understand us," Alexander Lukashenko noted. According to him, "the reason is not that we have the wrong regime, the wrong president, or something else is wrong." "I don't want to draw parallels, but they cooperate successfully with some regimes because they have oil, money, and so on. What if some small country in the center of Europe decides to become independent? Independent from whom? From Russia, Poland, or Lithuania, as part of which we have always been?" the President noted. Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that independent Belarus has been established. "And this must be accepted. Sooner or later, it will have to be accepted," the head of state believes. "Our goal is to create a state that not only our children but also we will be proud of," the President stressed. Alexander Lukashenko recalled that Belarus had gone a very long and difficult path to independence. "For centuries, our lands passed from one state to another, and Belarusians were subjected to political, economic, and cultural oppression. All this was in our history," the President noted. The head of state believes that the extraordinary resilience and will of the Belarusians, who managed to preserve their aspiration for statehood through centuries and achieve their goal, deserve respect. "The older generation has not forgotten Belarus of the tough 90s, when the economy collapsed, when there was a paralysis of power, unemployment, and poverty, and we were balancing on the brink of an abyss. Perhaps God saved us. We began to look for a way out, including a political one," the head of state recalled. "I remember those times when we were forming the Constitution and introducing the post of the country's president - a 'truncated' president, as many groups, especially the elite, wanted. Everyone wanted a weak president," Alexander Lukashenko said. "A president was elected, and I had to modernize the Constitution so that the president would be a president, to pull the country out of the abyss it was in then." "Fortunately, I had the opportunity to be the president during the period when we were pulling the country out of the quagmire we had fallen into, literally by the ears," he added. The President stated that a political system had been created in the country, planning and forecasting had not been abandoned, an executive vertical of power had been established, and a parliament had been formed. "I don't want to talk about peculiarities; some call it a phenomenon of our country's development. Let's not exalt ourselves too much. Let's talk about the fact that we have developed along our own special path. Whether we did it right or wrong, we believe we did it right, and I also think so, but this is the opinion of contemporaries. Generations to come will evaluate us: whether we acted correctly or not," the head of state noted. "But if there are improvements, it means this is one of the paths we had to take," the President added. -0-