He made the statement during a recent meeting in the Belarusian capital with representatives of various national minorities living in the country.
"I don’t want to say that we have excellent relations with all Poles living in Poland, but 99 percent of the Poles understand our policy, and, I am sure, support it," Lukashenko said, as cited by Belarusian state news agency Belta.
He added: "Our policy is not aggressive towards Poland. We are not trying to impose our policy or fight a war with Poland."
In his speech, Lukashenko referred to Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish journalist and activist imprisoned in Belarus.
Lukashenko claimed that Poczobut, who was sentenced last year to eight years in a maximum-security penal colony—in a case widely seen as politically motivated—would have been released long time if Warsaw had truly wanted it.
Instead, he argued, Poland is using the issue to worsen relations between the two countries.
"Mr. Poczobut is a journalist so in his case it is also his arbitrary detention," said Anaïs Marin, a French political scientist and UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus.
"I know it is something very important for the government of Poland and for Polish people because of his origins and because of his involvement in one association, in particular, which has been classified as extremist by the government," Marin told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler in an interview.
Anaïs Marin, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus. Photo: Danuta Isler/Radio Poland
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Source: eng.belta.by