West's political gambling, new global war among highlights of Lukashenko's speech at CSTO summit

Speech by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at the narrow-participation session of the CSTO Collective Security Council

First of all, I want to thank you all for speaking and sharing your thoughts on the situation in the region and the world. Here is my take on what is happening.

National and collective interests

Each of us looks at the world through the prism of national interests. This is understandable and justified. We, the heads of state, bear responsibility for our peoples, their future and security.

At the same time, balancing national and collective interests of all CSTO member states guarantees the stability and security of the region as a whole. This is dialectics. Despite the fact that each of us has his own area of responsibility in the organization, we understand that modern challenges and threats are global in nature and get our national interests woven into a shared fabric.

Therefore, I will dwell on key problems that affect all CSTO members and are closely interconnected with each other.

We got caught up in the whirlwind of the change of epochs. You all talk about this in your speeches. We are witnessing the collapse of the system of international relations. We are participants in the dismantling of the unipolar, if you will, Western-centric model.

A step-by-step transition to multipolarity is taking place. This is a complex, dramatic transition. Western politicians do not want to give up their positions, ignoring the inexorable course of history, which, as you know, cannot be stopped.