Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko embarks on a three-day state visit to China

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is set to embark on a three-day state visit to China, where he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visit follows China’s release of a position paper on Russia’s war in Ukraine, in which Beijing called for dialogue and insisted on its neutral stance. The US and NATO have expressed concern that China could be considering sending arms to Russia, but Beijing has denied these claims. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has praised Beijing’s position paper and hailed China’s significance in resolving global issues.

China has repeatedly declared a neutral stance on the conflict in Ukraine but has offered non-lethal aid to Russia to keep Putin’s war machine running. Belarus shares a border with both Ukraine and Russia and is politically and financially dependent on the Putin administration. In September 2022, Xi and Lukashenko met in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, where they hailed their “all-weather” partnership.

Lukashenko’s visit to Beijing comes after the European Union extended sanctions on Belarus for another year, citing Minsk’s repression of political opposition and its support for Russia’s war. The sanctions were extended until February 2024.