Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Friday that Belarus would remain an independent country forever.
"It will no longer be a Polish, Russian, American or German territory. All of our partners should be made used to that,"Mr. Lukashenka told faculty and students at Belarusian State University of Informatics and Electronic Engineering in Minsk.
When asked by a student whether Belarusian society was based on liberal, democratic or conservative values, Mr. Lukashenka replied, "You cannot be only a democrat, liberal or conservative."
He stressed that Belarus did not need liberalism misinterpreted as total permissiveness where "other people’s interests are not taken into account."
"Democracy is the power of the people. There are parliamentary and presidential elections, which is as much democracy as possible. One is free to go and vote," the presidential press office quoted him as saying.
Mr. Lukashenka attacked Western democracies for what he described as using democratization as a pretext to intervene in other countries’ affairs and overthrow their governments.
He also claimed that "dictatorial rule is impossible in Belarus, there are no resources to dictate anything to anyone." At the same time, he said, the United States has the economic instruments and military might to "dictate terms all over the world."
Mr. Lukashenka pledged that Belarus would continue conducting an independent policy. "We live in our own country, on our own piece of land," he said.
