Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, at a press conference today, ruled out any talk of a diplomatic scandal between Minsk and Yerevan following Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s remarks earlier this month that Armenia has no choice but to enter a Belarus-Russia union state.

"Armenia can't escape it. You think anyone needs them? They have already seen it," Lukashenko said, on February 4 during a two-hour interview with Russian journalist Vladimir Soloviev.

“This issue was given exaggerated attention by some political forces of Armenia. You need to look at the president's interview in full. There was not a single mention that someone is forcing someone to join some kind of integration association.  I don't understand at all why the speech is about some kind of diplomatic scandal," Makei said according to TASS.

On February 9, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said he “invited” the Belarus Ambassador to Armenia to meet with him and discuss what Lukashenko had said.

When asked to comment on Lukashenko’s remarks, Mirzoyan described them “as aimed at serving the internal political agenda of the President of Belarus, which has nothing to do with the foreign policy agenda.”

According to Makei, the implementation of allied programs with Russia will help other states see the benefits of integration. 

"The task is for us to achieve such a level of cooperation within the Union State, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which would be attractive for these states. Everything is moving towards this, and the decisions that were taken last year to implement programs of the Union State will give a very serious new impetus to deepening integration. And many other states will see the benefits of participating in this kind of integration associations," Makei said today.

Photo@ Aleksei Alexei Vitvitsky/RIA Novosti