Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is on a two-day visit to Russia, today expressed confidence that Moscow and Minsk will withstand pressure from the West and not collapse.

“We will overcome everything,” he emphasized. “Some people hoped or predicted that we would collapse, but we didn’t,” he added. Acknowledging the difficulties, he asked himself “but when was it easy?” to assure: “We will bear it all.”

Lukashenko arrived in Moscow earlier today for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During the first day of talks between the two leaders, the progress made on the Russia-Belarus unification project dominated the agenda. According to Lukashenko, 28 programs related to this plan have been largely completed. “Our frequent meetings are intended to ensure that there will be no delays in the implementation of these programs,” he explained.

Tomorrow Thursday, Putin and Lukashenko plan to discuss the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus and Finland’s accession to NATO.