ASTANA -- Kazakhstan summoned Paval Utsyupin, Belarus's ambassador in Astana, to "objectively assess" the Central Asian nation's stance on key international issues in an unbiased manner amid rising tensions between the two countries.
The ministry did not say specifically why it summoned Utsyupin, but it comes after Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, made several controversial statements in an interview with Russian state television.
Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtileu said at the August 21 meeting with Utsyupin that Astana is "confident that all differences between any nations must be solved solely via political and diplomatic means."
In the televised interview on August 20, Lukashenka accused some post-Soviet states of what he called "unfair relations with Russia," specifically mentioning antigovernment protests in Kazakhstan in January 2022 that turned deadly after Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev invited troops of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help him restore order.
SEE ALSO: Belarusian Embassy In Yerevan Pelted With Eggs And Tomatoes After Lukashenka Statements"We have to be together. The time will come soon to ask Russia for help. Nobody else is there to ask for help.... When the situation occurred in Kazakhstan, whom did it refer to for help? China, India, Pakistan? No. It turned to Putin for help. And we sent [CSTO] troops there. In just half of one day our planes landed there, and order was restored," Lukashenka said in the interview.
The interview caused a sharp reaction in Kazakhstan and other countries such as Armenia, where protesters pelted the Belarusian Embassy in Yerevan with eggs and other produce and demanded diplomatic ties with Minsk be cut over Lukashenka's interview, in which he also criticized Armenia's shift westward.
"Who needs Armenians? Nobody. Let them develop their economy and rely on their own resources. What is France? Who is [French President Emmanuel] Macron? Tomorrow, when Macron is gone, everybody will forget about the Armenians," Lukashenka said in the interview.
The rally in front of the Belarusian Embassy was organized by the pro-Western For the Republic Party. The party's leader, Arman Babajanian, was among the protesters.
Lukashenka's interview came amid Ukrainian armed forces' incursion into Russia's Kursk region, which led to speculations in many post-Soviet countries that Russia could now call on the CSTO member states -- Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- to help it repel Ukrainian troops. Armenia suspended its membership in the CSTO in February.