Dec 17 (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview that relations with the United States could improve and that a starting point could be U.S. acknowledgment that a Western campaign to overturn his 2020 re-election had failed.
Official results declaring Lukashenko had been re-elected to a sixth term sparked unprecedented mass protests with demonstrators denouncing what they regarded as electoral fraud. Russian leader Vladimir Putin expressed support for Lukashenko whereas Western countries refused to recognise him as president.
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, responded to the protests by arresting many thousands of demonstrators.
In comments to U.S. media outlet Newsmax published on Wednesday, Lukashenko said Belarusians and Americans were pragmatists able to reach agreement.
“Like a man, I told your colleagues who came here: guys, you have to know how to admit defeat. If a big country like the U.S., if you organised an attack on us in 2020 and lost, that is a starting point,” Lukashenko said.
“No need to shout from the rooftops ‘we lost’, but that is a starting point. We lost, but let’s sit down calmly, like men, and move on.”
The United States and other Western countries hit Belarus with sanctions in connection with the 2020 election as well as other alleged rights violations and after Lukashenko allowed Putin to use Belarusian territory to launch the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. emissaries have visited Belarus in recent years to improve ties and help secure the release of activists that the West sees as political prisoners. The U.S. envoy to Belarus, John Coale, who was present during Lukashenko’s interview, last week helped broker a deal to win the release of 123 people imprisoned in Belarus.
In Lukashenko’s comments to Newsmax, also posted online by the Belarusian state news agency BelTA, the Belarusian leader said his country wanted good ties with the U.S.
“Why do we have poor relations with the Americans? Did we do something bad to the United States of America? Nothing. So why do you look at us in such a doubting way?” he said.
“I don’t want the problems that emerged while I was leading the country to be passed on to another generation.”
The two countries, he said, could even work together to resolve Washington’s differences with Venezuela – a country whose leaders have enjoyed good relations with Lukashenko.
“Can we work together there? Yes, we can.” he said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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