Authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on September 15 in the resort city of Sochi for talks on bilateral ties and integration within the so-called union state amid their international isolation over the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin said in a statement the two leaders also discussed Putin's meeting this week with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, who offered his country's "full and unconditional support" to defend what he said was Russia's security interests.
The statement said Lukashenka noted at the Sochi meeting -- the seventh time Putin and Lukashanka have met this year alone -- that "three more months" are needed to accomplish the needed steps to complete the integration efforts between Russia and Belarus, and he expressed hope that his country will be included in the development of the Russia-North Korea partnership. He did not elaborate.
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Putin called relations with Belarus "stable and reliable" while also highlighting "mutual issues and mutual obligations." He also called speculation that he had asked Kim for help in fighting the war against Ukraine "complete nonsense."
Kim is reported to have visited military- and civil-aviation factories in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on September 15, completing his visit to Russia.
While Belarus has not sent forces to join Russia's war in Ukraine, it has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for the full-scale invasion it launched in February 2022.
The two allies signed documents allowing for the placement of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus -- the first relocation of such warheads outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union -- in May. The announcement sparked immediate criticism from governments around the world, while NATO called it "dangerous and irresponsible."
On September 13, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Belarus's involvement in Russia's war on Ukraine and called Lukashenka's regime "an accomplice in the crimes committed by Russia."
The resolution expressed concern about "the rampant political, economic, military, and cultural subordination of Belarus to Moscow," calling Belarus "a satellite state of Russia."
The resolution also denounced the "illegal transfer of more than 2,150 children, including orphans" from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to Belarus and called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider issuing a warrant for Lukashenka's arrest.
The ICC in March issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of being responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, which constitutes a war crime.
The resolution also condemned the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, calling it a "blatant violation of Belarus's nuclear-free status."
Belarus has welcomed closer relations with Moscow since a wave of crushing sanctions were imposed on it by the West after a deadly government crackdown on massive protests following a disputed 2020 presidential election that handed Lukashenka a sixth term. More sanctions have followed over Minsk's role in the Ukraine war.
Lukashenka showed his loyalty in late June when he took part in talks to end a mutiny by the private Wagner Group, claiming he helped halt the revolt by agreeing with mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Putin to host Wagner troops in Belarus.