The Soligorsk Palace of Culture gathered representatives from local enterprises, private businesses, youth, and retirees. Yekaterina, a factory worker, raised a question regarding the surrounding disinformation about events in neighboring Ukraine. 

«There are numerous false reports claiming that Ukraine might attack Belarus or that Belarus plans to invade Ukraine. Why are these rumors being spread? What is the actual situation in our country, given the conflict right at our borders?» she asked

Marat Markov emphasized that Belarus maintains a purely defensive military doctrine. 

«Even the Oreshnik system, which is constantly mentioned in relation to our deployment of nuclear weapons, simply shows that we must be capable of launching a retaliatory strike if necessary,» the minister explained. «In other words, any adversary must understand: if they launch an act of aggression against us, there will be a response. This response will be harsh.

The minister noted that Poland is expanding its armed forces from 120,000 to 300,000, with plans to increase troop strength to 500,000. 

«Warsaw has purchased over a thousand tanks, but tanks have never been defensive arms — they are always exclusively offensive weapons,» he said. 

«This also applies to several other military systems being tested near our borders. The probability of an attack on us is heavily tied to two factors. First, if we are weak, the likelihood of an invasion increases. Second, the risk grows if Belarusian society becomes less cohesive. Why do we constantly make reference to 2020. If the authorities had not shown strong political will at that moment, if the elites had fractured, if a significant portion of officials had betrayed the president, or if the president had shown weakness like Yanukovich — the probability of an invasion from the western borders through Grodno Oblast would have been highly likely,» the minister added. «It is no coincidence that we were forced to hold military drills in Grodno Oblast at that time. We demonstrated that the government was strong, remained in control, and would under no circumstances allow an invasion. Had we been less cohesive and shown societal weakness back then, the probability of becoming a combat zone would have been high. Unfortunately, this risk will continue to shadow us for at least the next five years. Therefore, we must clearly understand and consider what we truly want.

Stefania, an employee at the Soligorsk house-building factory, asked the minister how recruiting foreign labor could help improve the workforce situation in Belarus. Marat Markov noted that the issue is complex and highly debatable. Sharing memories of his youth during the Soviet era, the minister emphasized that back then, nationality was never an issue. «Whether you were Kazakh, Uzbek, Jewish, or Indian — it simply didn’t matter,» the minister emphasized. 

«There were just people, and they could be good or bad. I believe this division between good and bad remains timeless. Today, tens of thousands of citizens from different countries and continents — from Japan and Asia to Africa and the Middle East — study at our universities. They study, and some of them eventually stay to work in our hospitals, clinics, and educational institutions, teaching and practicing medicine. We evaluate them not by their race or appearance, but by their level of professionalism.

According to Marat Markov, the public is alarmed by reports from countries where migrants dictate their own conditions and interfere with the lives of local residents. 

«Our state policy is designed to ensure that such situations are completely prevented. A person must be registered without fail and must be able to communicate. These rules are now being clearly and strictly defined. This is a decisive point: if the rules are clearly established, it does not matter at all what nationality a person is who will work here and benefit the state. Another point: do not believe everything you read on the internet. Earlier, there was a lot of talk about 40,000 Pakistanis who were supposedly going to flood our streets ‘tomorrow’. Then they started writing about Uzbeks. Let us proceed from the fact that television, BelTA resources, and the official online resources of other state media are sometimes very useful to read,» he said

Yuri, a representative of a private company, asked about Belarus’ place in the emerging collective East. «The president spoke about the need to cooperate with China back when he first became President,» Marat Markov said. «China is a huge market of one and a half billion people. This cooperation is of great interest to us. The Middle East and the East are already open doors. There is the Great Silk Road. Belarus is interesting to China because it is located in the center of Europe. It has a fairly good transport hub for delivering goods to Europe. Why has Poland somewhat toned down its rhetoric? Because the Chinese have indicated that they are interested in Belarus for the transit of Chinese goods to Europe. But there is another direction that we should now view the way we once viewed China: Africa. There is a billion people there who need to eat, and they really like our products in terms of price-quality ratio. We need to work very intensively in this direction.»

Elvira from Soligorsk asked about the Culture Ministry’s involvement in developing small businesses. Marat Markov stated that Belarus has not yet identified a government body that will be responsible for the country’s creative industries. 

«But we already have some preliminary plans, and the direction has been chosen correctly. Everyone is used to seeing culture as a loss-making and costly sector that requires constant funding. Of course, money must be invested without fail. Looking even at this Palace of Culture, I am very glad that you have good conditions here. I really want all our cultural facilities, theaters, museums, and libraries to be in such a state. For that to happen, we need to learn how to earn money in the cultural sector. We need to invest in culture, but the return on those investments must also grow. When a private enterprise operates, it generally does not ask for money. It earns its own income, pays for jobs, and pays taxes. In other words, the state is interested in having more private businesses. We will cultivate this philosophy of earning money, and for this purpose, we are currently considering a number of issues related to changes in legislation regulating this sector, including individual entrepreneurs working in culture,» the minister said

Several participants at the meeting were interested in the development of artificial intelligence, asking which professions might disappear as a result. Marat Markov noted that with the development of AI, some professions may not disappear entirely, but they will change significantly, including in terms of the number of people involved in them. This is especially true for creative professions. In his opinion, AI will have a very strong impact on everyone.

Regarding Belarus’ participation in the AI race and the creation of its own artificial intelligence center, similar to what China has done, the minister emphasized that such work is underway. 

«The government is currently working on this and paying close attention to it. Companies that are beginning to specialize in this field are now being registered in the Hi-Tech Park. Special conditions are being created for them. We are counting on the fact that we will definitely not be laggards. I am an optimist, and I am confident that sometimes one good, smart discovery or breakthrough can give a small country serious competitive advantages. So we will hope that we have enough bright minds for that,» Marat Markov concluded.