INVOLVEMENT OF BELARUS INTO EUROPEAN INTEGRATION POSSIBLE ON PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES ONLY-PRESIDENT LUKASHENKO








MINSK, March 2. /From RIA Novosti's Olesya Luchaninova/. The involvement of Belarus into European integration processes is possible solely on the principles of partnership and cooperation, Alexander Lukashenko said Friday at a meeting with the heads of Belarus' diplomatic missions abroad.


	According to President Lukashenko, in its relations with the European Union, Belarus should not let its national interests be encroached upon. The country's relations with NATO must be based on this same principle, he emphasized.


	Lukashenko said Belarus wanted the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to become a forum for finding common European approaches to major problems of the modern day. 


	The Belarusian president expressed an opinion that European nations and the U.S. treat Belarus differently. According to him, Europe actually recognizes Belarus as before, but the pressure on it  [Europe] from the United States is too strong for it to remain independent in its views and policies. Thus, among other European organizations, the U.S. tries to influence the OSCE, Lukashenko noted.  The OSCE is now turning from a universal mechanism for developing a collective will of its member states into an instrument of influencing other countries, and has already become sort of a weapon of  "forced democracy," he said.