Moscow: In light of escalating border tensions between the NATO member and Moscow ally Poland and Belarus, strongman Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus said on Friday that he had ordered "contact" and was prepared to speak.
A Belarusian man was detained by Poland last week after it claimed two Belarusian helicopters violated its airspace and were suspected of being a part of a "Russian spy ring."
Since Lukashenko permitted Moscow to attack Ukraine from Belarusian territory, the long-frozen relations between Minsk and Warsaw have deteriorated significantly.
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As Russian Wagner mercenary fighters established Minsk as their new base, tensions between the two countries grew even worse. Poland claimed that this posed a security threat and increased border security.
"We must speak with the Poles. According to state news agency Belta, Lukashenko said, "I told the prime minister to get in touch with them. We are neighbours, and you don't get to pick them.
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A day after Warsaw declared it would send 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus, the peculiar remark was made.
Because of the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 15, Lukashenko declared, "They must escalate the situation in order to demonstrate that they have adequately armed (Poland)."
According to Pawel Jablonski, deputy foreign minister of Poland, if the leader of Belarus "really wants to improve relations with Poland, he can do it in a very simple way."
He urged Lukashenko to "stop attacking our border, free the more than a thousand political prisoners and (Belarusian-Polish journalist) Andrzej Poczobut, stop this hate campaign, this hybrid war against Poland." He told Polsat television, "We have never had hostile intentions towards Belarus.
But Jablonski claimed that "Lukashenko's words remain at odds with his actions." After their failed uprising in Russia, the Wagner group is being hosted by Lukashenko; Poland has warned of "provocations" involving them.
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Last month, while travelling to Saint Petersburg with Putin, Lukashenko made fun of Wagner fighters by saying that they were "asking to go West, ask for permission... to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow." Thousands of Belarusians who have fled their country, which has been ruled by Lukashenko since 1994, have gathered in Poland.