When people are ready to defend their state, the likelihood of aggression from outside decreases

Belarus should not be seen as a weak enemy that can be easily destroyed. This was noticed by the Minister of culture Marat Markov on the air of the program “Club of editors” on the TV channel “Belarus 1”, writes sb.by.

On October 16, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, during a working trip to the Verkhnedvinsky district, got acquainted with the preparation of one of the militia units. The head of state sets the task of developing a national militia in the country. Speaking about why this is relevant in the current situation, Marat Markov noted:

- Why should we, in principle, secure ourselves in terms of mobilizing a society that is mental to begin with? One way or another, after the Second World War, the rest of the collapses of countries occurred as a result of internal conflicts inspired from outside, with Western money. The probability that external aggression will take place, the greater the weaker the state, including the greater decentralization occurs in society. When the president talks about the need for mass militias, it’s not just to give people guns and let them know where to go at a critical moment. When people understand that their state needs to be defended, when society as a whole understands this, the likelihood of fighting decreases. The Minister drew attention to the behavior of some other countries, and gave several indicative figures:

- Today, on average, about five percent of GDP is spent on defense (or rather, on arms) in the Baltic States, Poland, and Europe as a whole. Poland spends 53 billion dollars on this. In Belarus, the military budget by the end of 2025 was much less. If we are supposedly preparing to attack someone, why are we spending so little on weapons? We are ready to defend ourselves, but we are not going to attack anyone. This requires completely different costs. Europe is building and modernizing 200 factories that will produce weapons and ammunition. In the next couple of years, they are going to produce six times as much. Germany is going to spend 150 billion euros annually on armaments by 2029. So who's preparing for war?

Marat Markov also explained what “military Schengen” means:

- This project assumes that European countries will agree that the army of one state will pass through the territory of another, not in a month and a half, but in less than three days, and in crisis and emergency situations – without permission at all. That is, we understand that if Germany, conditionally, wants to attack Russia or Belarus, it will calmly pass and will not linger anywhere. They are modernizing bridges, strengthening roads, building new airfields. And the most interesting thing is that they are building real standard camps for prisoners of war. Therefore, we cannot allow Belarus to be seen as a weak enemy and try to destroy it.