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Belarusian president vows to US that he will be at next Board of Peace summit — agency

The Belarusian president noted that the American side insisted on his arrival

MINSK, March 20. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko promised the United States that he will attend the next meeting of the Board of Peace, the BelTA news agency reported.

"They strongly insisted that I come to the next Board of Peace meeting," he told journalists after talks with a US delegation led by special envoy John Cole.

Lukashenko explained that he was unable to attend the first meeting held in Washington on February 19 because of a surprise combat readiness check of the Belarusian Armed Forces. "I audited the entire army. Every evening, the group overseeing and implementing my plans reported to me on the progress of this, truly unprecedented in scale, inspection. How could I leave? Should I have abandoned this process? No way," he said. Lukashenko denied claims that the army check had anything to do with alleged plans of aggression "against Ukraine, Poland, or Lithuania." "No, we are doing it for our sake. I want to see the state of our army," the Belarusian leader emphasized.

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