BELARUS - Trilateral Anti-Western Front Emerging
Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov flew to Pyongyang from Beijing and was greeted by North Korean officials including Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu, according to video shot by Associated Press Television News.
Neither North Korea nor Belarus has disclosed which issues are at stake during Ryzhenkov’s visit. But given the countries’ deepening ties with Russia, experts say his trip will likely center on building North Korea-Belarus-Russia cooperation to better cope with their separate disputes with the West.
During a meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last September, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko suggested that Belarus could join Russia and North Korea in “three-way cooperation.”
North Korea and Belarus have had diplomatic relations since the early 1990s. North Korea opened an embassy in Minsk in 2016. Belarus does not have an embassy in Pyongyang.
-abcnews.go.com, 23 July 2024
Arno's Commentary
Belarus, also known as “White Russia,” was a former Soviet Union state which declared independence in 1991.
With a not quite 10 million population and a life expectancy of 74.7 years, Belarus has a per capita GDP of about $28,000.
Economically, import partners are listed as following: China 26%, Poland 15%, Germany 12%, Lithuania 12%, Turkey 9%. In the CIA Factbook, total annual imports are listed as $47.4 billion, and exports about the same: $47.9 billion.
Belarus is a European state; as is, of course, much of Russia. Traditionally, the boundary is considered the Ural Mountains (to the west is Europe and to the east is Asia).
This development is not surprising. These geopolitical power structures will eventually lead to a more unified world, despite apparently forming an anti-Western front.
When reading Daniel, we are informed about four Gentile superpowers, with special attention paid to the fourth beast: “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns” (Daniel 7:7). Verse 23 adds: “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Note the words, “devour the whole earth.”
Therefore, regardless of the various conglomerations of states or nations, it will all lead to the goal of global rebellion against the Creator.
In brief, that’s what world history is all about. Satan, the god of this world according to 2 Corinthians 4:4, wants humanity to fall down and worship him, which will happen in the end stages of the end times. The steps are now in full progress.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
