Inauguration of the President of Belarus

1 Belarus

«The inauguration ceremony of the President of Belarus took place in Minsk, at the Palace of Independence» — the »BelTA» news agency reported. The ceremony was attended by several hundred people, such as the senior officials of the country, parliamentarians, the heads of state bodies, the local authorities, scientists, the representatives from the mass media, culture and sports workers. Alexander Lukashenko announced that he is taking office as the president with pride for the Belarusians who have passed the test of their convictions. He added that the «color revolution» in Belarus has failed. “A challenge was thrown at our statehood. The challenge that destroys independent states via techniques that were tested and used over and over. We were among very few, perhaps the only ones, who defeated the ‘color revolution’. It was the choice of Belarusians who do not want to lose their country» — Alexander Lukashenko explained. The »BelTA» news agency reported that after the inauguration ceremony, the servicemen of Belarus took an oath of loyalty to the people and to the president of the country.

2 Belarus

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the ex-candidate for the presidency of Belarus, stated that Alexander Lukashenko isn’t the legitimate head of Belarus. On Wednesday she announced on her Telegram channel that she is »the only leader that was elected by the Belarusian people». She repeated the demand of the Belarusian opposition to hold new presidential elections, and added that the European countries are ready to provide help to the country «after the victory of democracy». A number of European countries refused to recognize Lukashenko’s legitimacy. The Baltic countries that recently actively criticized Lukashenko, made such statements first. Later they were joined by Slovakia and Germany.

3 The USA — Israel

The Pentagon press service reported that the head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, had a meeting with the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz. During the meeting, Mark Esper promised to enhance the Israeli security and military superiority in the Middle East. «For generations our partnership stands on the shared values, interests, and concerns. The cornerstone of our military cooperation is to maintain the Israeli military superiority in the region. We will continue to support our long-standing priority of ensuring the Israeli security» — said Mark Esper. The parties also discussed the signing of agreements on the normalization of the Israeli relations with the UAE and Bahrain, which opened «a historic opportunity to fortify the regional security». It was noted that during a short visit to Washington, the Israeli Defense Minister also met with the chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milli.

4 The USA — Iran

The US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stated during an interview to the »Washington Examiner» that the US government intends to retaliate against anyone who makes arms deals with Iran. According to Michael Pompeo — «The USA intend to pursue every violation on which the USA can take counter-measures. Regardless if those are violations by China or Russia, arms sales or economic deals, or resolutions from the UN Security Council». He added that the purchase of new weapons by Iran threatens Europe. «The presence of the Chinese tanks, air defense systems, or defensive missile systems in Iran threatens the people of Iran first, and secondly — the people of the Middle East. It also threatens the people who live in Europe» — Michael Pompeo concluded.

5 China

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated that China supports the initiative of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to conclude an international agreement to ban the deployment of weapons in space. Vladimir Putin suggested such initiative during his speech at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly. The Chinese representative underlined that the USA »have already declared that it is necessary for them to ensure the dominance in space. They have created a branch of forces for this purpose, and even accelerated the pace of placing weapons in outer space. Ensuring the security in space is in the interest of all mankind. We must create a mechanism for the arms control in this matter, in order to maintain peace and general security»- the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry explained.