MINSK, August 16. /TASS/. Belarus does not want to become a cordon between Russia and the Western states, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday, cited by BelTA news agency.

"I have already passed through that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, when there was an attempt to create the Baltic-Black Sea Region - a ‘sanitary zone:’ three Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine, to separate Russia from the West," Lukashenko said. Belarus does not want to be a ‘buffer zone,’ he said. "We understand what a result can be. Therefore, we agreed with the Russian President that we will act with interaction in this aspect," the Belarusian president added.

Earlier on Saturday, head of states of Russia and Belarus had a telephone conversation. Presidents discussed the situation in Belarus after presidential elections and expressed confidence that problems would be settled soon, the Kremlin’s press service said.