'Exciting conversation': John Bolton talks about 2-hour meeting with Lukashenko

On August 29, Belarus was visited by US Presidential Adviser on National Security John Bolton, the highest-ranking US official who has been in the country over the past 20 years.

Photo: president.gov.by

Bolton met with the President of Belarus and during the meeting said that Washington hopes to find a common language with Minsk in respect of human rights and non-proliferation of weapons. Alexander Lukashenko noted that Belarus has always advocated normalizing relations with the United States and wants to start from scratch.

In an exclusive interview with the correspondent Present Time in Minsk, John Bolton spoke about what he managed to discuss with the Belarusian president during the more than two-hour meeting, as well as what he thinks about the attitude towards the “last dictatorship in Europe” and the integration of Belarus with Russia.

- The Russian 2009 reboot of the year was an attempt to improve relations between the US and Russia. What do you think, in the case of Belarus, is something happening now that could become such a reboot?

- I would not say that the reset of relations with Russia of the 2009 of the year was successful. So I would not use this metaphor. I told President Lukashenko and others that there are serious problems in our bilateral relations - when it comes to human rights or non-proliferation of weapons.

But I also think that the geostrategic situation in this part of Europe is such that, given all the threats in the world, we can at least conduct a dialogue about where the interests of Belarus and the United States intersect. We will have to work with the rest of the problems.

Therefore, in my conversation today with President Lukashenko, which, incidentally, lasted unexpectedly long - 2 hours 15 minutes - we managed to discuss a lot, but we did not solve any problems.

I started this conversation without expectations that this could happen, but it was an exciting conversation.

Photo: president.gov.by

— Since the beginning of the 2000s, Western politicians have called Belarus “the last dictatorship in Europe.” Is something changing or is geopolitics simply more important than the human rights situation?

- I do not think that the administration of President Trump pays less attention to human rights.

I think that a new generation is growing inside Belarus itself - people who have never been part of the Soviet Union. They see what their peers, people of their age, are doing in the West and around the world. And I think this is a natural evolutionary process.

I do not underestimate the problems that we need to work with, but I think that many things are happening in the world that require the United States to talk with other countries.

President Trump has shown that he is ready to talk with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, and this is not a human rights paradise. But it was necessary to talk about the nuclear issue - this is a sufficient reason.

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- Belarus has close relations with China and Iran. Have you talked about what the United States has to offer in order to weaken these ties between countries?

- Yes, we talked about this for a while. President Lukashenko told me about his visits to China, about what negotiations he had with the country's leaders.

We also had such conversations - complicated negotiations with China right now. But now it’s important for us to talk about the threats that come from China, with regard to the theft of intellectual property, forced technology transfer, violation of international trade rules - those things that gave them an unfair advantage.

We talked about the threat to the fifth generation of telecommunications from companies such as Huawei. I pointed to the president on the way from the airport to the Palace of Independence to the Huawei store we were driving through - right here in Minsk.

There are a lot of questions with China. Of course, today we just walked along the surface, but I am pleased that the president and I discussed these issues.

- In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the unification of Belarus and Russia into a single union state. What are the US thoughts on this matter and how can the US support Belarusian sovereignty in this case?

- I was in the administration of George W. Bush when the Soviet Union collapsed and the republics became independent. Since then, US policy has remained unchanged - we support the sovereignty and independence of these countries.

Of course, each country chooses its own path. In the United States, we know where sovereignty lies – in the first words of the Constitution: “We the people.” Therefore, what the people of Belarus want should determine what kind of relationship it will have with Russia.

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- In Belarus, the presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in the next two years. You discussed these issues in connection with numerous reports of violations of human rights - political freedoms and, in particular, freedom of speech. Have you discussed these issues in connection with the upcoming elections?

- We did not talk about the elections, but, indeed, we talked about human rights. I talked about the recent presidential election and Zelensky parliamentary elections in Ukraine. We talked about the amazing coalition government that is now in Moldova. So I think he imagines what is happening around him, in Europe. He sees Poland with its democracy, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I think this is understandable.

- Both Belarus and the USA signed the Budapest memorandum. There is criticism of the United States when it comes to the situation in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. What could the United States do to ensure the sovereignty of Belarus in the event of Russian occupation?

- Let me remind you, the USA, Great Britain and Russia - all three were guarantors of the sovereignty and borders of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which transferred nuclear weapons to Russia. And Russia violated its own guarantees. So I don’t think the United States or Great Britain are to blame.

I think that entering into arms control treaties with Russia, you need to be careful to ensure that it fulfills its obligations. A violation of the Budapest memorandum in this case was Russia's use of military force against Ukraine.

- Do you think it’s time to ease the sanctions [against Belarus]?

- I think we will talk about a series of sanctions against Belarus due to concerns about human rights or non-proliferation of weapons. And see if we can work through these problems. I think it will be an important and difficult conversation, but it is worth conducting.

ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• On July 27 2018 city instilled By virtue of the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus, according to which citizens of 74 states, including the USA, can enter and leave the Republic of Belarus in a visa-free regime for up to 30 days through the Minsk National Airport.

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