Under mounting pressure from Western sanctions, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has turned to his “ironclad friend” China for support. While Beijing has welcomed Minsk’s overtures, some diplomatic observers have warned that China should be cautious about getting too close. Belarus opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky jailed for 18 years Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and is often described as “Europe’s last dictator”, signed a presidential order on December 3, saying the country wanted to strengthen ties with China in areas such as politics, security and economics – including the Belt and Road Initiative . The order came a day after fresh sanctions were imposed by the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada over the migrant crisis on the EU’s borders with Belarus , which Lukashenko has been accused of orchestrating. The Belarusian leader had already faced pressure from the West over allegations he rigged last year’s election and the subsequent crackdown on anti-government protesters and opposition politicians. China, which signed a comprehensive strategic partnership with Belarus in 2013, has offered support to Lukashenko. President Xi Jinping congratulated him over the 2020 election, while earlier this month, Chinese ambassador Xie Xiaoyong welcomed a directive on improving relations. Earlier this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also told his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei that China was ready to take ties to a higher-level in a meeting in which both countries hailed their “ironclad friendship”. China is now Belarus’s second-largest trading partner, with bilateral turnover rising by 9 per cent in the first three quarters of this year to US$4.2 billion. “Belarus is now in a very bad situation due to the refugee problem, its relations with the West have become more tense,” Yang Shu, former dean of Central Asia studies at Lanzhou University, said. “It needs someone to help recover its economy, and help him solve diplomatic difficulties.” But some Chinese observers warned that getting too close to Belarus could cause problems in its relationship with other countries. Feng Yujun, director of the Centre for Russian and Central Asian studies at Fudan University, said: “I personally think that at this very sensitive moment, the closer ties between China and Belarus will make the US and its Western allies think China is offering protection to Belarus, which will complicate China’s relationship with the EU and the US.” Feng also warned that it risked upsetting Moscow, which might feel Beijing was encroaching on its sphere of influence. Belarus leader accuses Lithuania of dumping bodies of migrants Last month the Russian and Belarusian leaders agreed on a series of road maps aimed at further integrating their economies and transport systems, including the creation of common financial and energy markets. It is part of a decades-old plan to create a “Union State”- which Lukashenko has described as his “priority of priorities”. But Feng said: “It will make Russia think that China has its own special agenda in Belarus, which disrupts Russia’s integration process with Belarus. “In order to counter Western pressure, Belarus actively moved closer to Russia and sought its protection. But to a large extent, the Union State of Russia-Belarus has compressed the space for Belarusian independence.” Feng said Belarus had made “unprecedented” concessions to Russia, as “the only way” to secure protection, but added: “Lukashenko wanted to use China to counterbalance Russia. On this issue, Lukashenko has a more elaborate calculation.”