Speech of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, at the ceremony of soldiers swearing allegiance

Speech of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, at the ceremony of soldiers swearing allegiance

Soldiers and sergeants, cadets and warrant officers, officers and generals!

Dear compatriots and guests of our Belarusian land!

Leading the country is a great and huge responsibility before the nation and Fatherland.

The president’s assumption of office always heralds a new stage in the country’s life and another historic period of time, upon which the society pins its hopes for the future.

Together we’ve already done a lot on the complicated way of state establishment and development.

In our creative endeavours we’ve been united by love for the Motherland, confidence in our strength and ambitions to secure public welfare. All these years the national security system guaranteed the protection of the peaceful work of the Belarusian nation against any threats.

Today Belarus is a fully-fledged, respectable member of the international community, ready to protect its sovereignty against encroachments.

It’s a country of high social standards where stability and civil accord have been secured.

As the Commander-in-Chief of the Belarusian Armed Forces I primarily prioritise the reliable protection of our country’s interests, its constitutional principles and territorial integrity.

The world around us has not become any better. This fact negatively affects Belarus. However, we’ll definitely preserve our country.

We value our native land. We will be united, persistent and insistent in our creative endeavours. We will be principled and decisive in defending national interests.

We have always declared and will continue to declare that we have never threatened anyone and never will. Our military goal is to protect our piece of land where a branch of the Slavonic people — Belarusians — has lived since times immemorial. It is a pure, beautiful and educated nation. We will not give away an inch of our land. We won’t threaten our neighbours and other countries. We don’t need someone else’s, but we will not give away what is ours.

However, we should remember that, while we shall not threaten anyone, any `who come to us sword in hand, by the sword shall perish’, as our great ancestor said. We, men in uniform, are here primarily for this purpose. We will sacrifice our lives in protecting our country, our families and our loved ones.

If we are true men, we will not allow anyone to invade our land and to molest our children, the elderly and women. With our lives we should protect our country where the peaceful and prosperous nation will live.

Our country will continue honouring its peacekeeping commitments as part of international treaties and agreements. Belarus’ safe future depends only on us and no one else.

For the sake of successful development of the country we have everything necessary: a centuries-old national culture, moral values, economic and scientific potential. And most of all we have excellent and worthy people.

Today representatives of all power-wielding agencies, able to ensure peaceful conditions for creation and labour, are standing together here. I’m convinced that under your reliable protection, our protection all of us will work together to overcome any difficulties and to achieve goals of the largest scale for the benefit of our common home — the Republic of Belarus.

Long live the hard-working Belarusian nation and our glorious defenders of the Fatherland.

Hoorah!