The President of Belarus expressed criticism of the European Union`s Eastern Partnership program, in which Belarus has been involved since its launch.
"We don’t know yet what the Eastern Partnership is, especially that we have not yet started working there and they are already bringing us to our knees there, bending us over, starting educating us, sometimes with the help of a whip," the government`s news agency BelTA quoted him as saying Tuesday at a meeting with journalists representing post-Soviet countries.
"I have already said: we are a well-educated nation, we won`t tolerate anyone educating us,"Mr. Lukashenka said.
The Belarusian leader recalled that the Eastern Partnership had been proposed by Sweden and Poland, which he said seek the role of Belarus` "elder brother." "I said: we don’t need that, we already have the elder brother. We have Russia, which is our elder brother," he said.
Mr. Lukashenka noted that Belarus` membership of the Customs Union did not contradict its involvement in the Eastern Partnership.
"We are a bridge linking Eurasia and the former Soviet Union with Europe," he said. "And while walking on this blade, this thin ice, one may stumble somewhere, behave incorrectly."
