Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko spoke on Tuesday at the 4th Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security, which organizers said was attended by representatives of around 50 countries. He devoted a significant part of his speech to the United States and Europe, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. The Belarusian leader said Trump may be keeping Europe from a third world war, which could end in a nuclear conflict, without even realizing it.
Lukashenko suggested that Europe, rather than the United States, could now be the initiator of a major war and warned that, in the event of a nuclear conflict, “there will be nowhere to hide across the ocean.” “If Trump wants the award so much, let him receive it,” he added. A year earlier, in October 2025, Lukashenko had called the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado rather than Trump “complete stupidity.”
“Everyone is tired of this war”
The Belarusian president said the war in Ukraine would end in the coming months. In his assessment, there were no longer enough forces and resources to continue it, while people were mentally exhausted and tired of the conflict.
Lukashenko also stressed that Belarus does not plan to enter the war. He cited Vladimir Putin’s statement that the Russian president has no intention of drawing Belarus into the fighting. If Minsk enters the war, the entire NATO bloc—Poland, Lithuania and Latvia—would use it as a pretext to fight Belarus as well, he explained, pointing to 3,500 kilometers of border and asking who would benefit from that.
Lukashenko said Belarusians and Russians do not plan to attack anyone or fight anyone, and that their fundamental approach is dialogue and cooperation.
Europe, Poland and the lessons of 2020
Lukashenko also addressed relations with the European Union. Europe wants to punish him and Putin, he said, but asked what that would achieve for European countries and their peoples.
The Belarusian leader again recalled the events of 2020, when mass protests took place in the country after the presidential election. He said the conflict in Ukraine could have begun in Belarus and that, if the authorities had not held on at the time, the war would have been there.
He also addressed neighboring Poland, which has sharply increased its defense spending in recent years. Lukashenko questioned why Warsaw sought to become Europe’s leading power and why it was arming itself so heavily.
Speaking about Ukraine’s future, Lukashenko said the West would not rebuild the country. Ukrainians should understand, he said, that they would have to rebuild it themselves together with Russians and Belarusians so that the peoples could leave what happened behind.
Sinirlioğlu visits Belarus for the first time
On the sidelines of the conference, Lukashenko also met with OSCE Secretary General and former Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who was visiting Belarus for the first time. The Minsk conference was the reason for his visit. Ankara had previously officially nominated Sinirlioğlu as a candidate for the post of UN secretary-general.
Photo: president.gov.by, ONT. Video: First Information
