Lukashenko answers questions from foreign, Belarusian media

The event is unscheduled. The president responded to the requests of the foreign guests who arrived in the Belarusian capital.

"I am telling you honestly that the meeting has not been planned. The press secretary told me that we have such a powerful "army", especially foreign journalists (I do not count Russians among as such). I thought that it would probably be inhospitable on behalf of Belarus not to give you some time," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The head of state will answer questions from journalists of Belarus and also Austria, Azerbaijan, the UK, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the USA, France, Japan and the interstate television and radio company Mir.

"I see my old acquaintances here [in particular, BBC journalist Stephen Rosenberg who interviewed Alexander Lukashenko in November 2021] who came to see me some time ago and we had a very thorough conversation on various issues, on different topics. I think that it would be interesting to see the dynamics of the problems that they were concerned about and that they were so persistent to blame me for them then and now," the president said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also noted that today's meeting with journalists does not cancel the Big Conversation with the President announced earlier. "What we have here is the over-scheduling. The president's address to the people and Parliament will take place in just few weeks. Two events, one after the other, there are bound to be some repetitions," he explained. "We are preparing the address. We will address all the issues and take a look a little in the future within the framework of this address."

"The Big Conversation, as we call it, is not removed, just postponed. There is no conspiracy here. It is just an issue of over-scheduling," the president once again noted. According to him, time will be allocated for a meeting with media representatives within the framework of the Big Conversation in the future.