MINSK, February 20. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko thinks that worries over the potential start of World War Three are quite valid because military force has become the main default argument of global decision-making centers.

"Military force has again become the main argument put forth by global decision-making centers. As if there had never been millions of losses [in human lives] and the horrors of the First and Second World Wars," the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying at a meeting with top national security officials. "Now we have been literally engulfed by an informational wave of so-called foreboding of a Third World War, which has been bandied about by everybody and their uncle. And there are [legitimate] grounds for such concerns," the Belarusian president emphasized.

Lukashenko noted that tens of thousands of NATO servicemen, and hundreds of units of military hardware, aircraft and helicopters are being deployed near the borders of Russia and Belarus. "There are about 32,000 servicemen from unified contingents of NATO and the US armed forces stationed in the immediate vicinity of Belarus and Russia, within the framework of the alliance’s operations being conducted in Europe. This is more than 1,000 units of armor, about 160 artillery systems and mortars, 235 aircraft and helicopters," the Pul Pervogo Telegram channel, which is close to the Belarusian presidential press service, quoted him as saying.