In March 2001, Lukašenka was appointed third secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adviser in the department of Western Europe. From April 2003 he worked as head of the department of foreign economic relations of the Research Institute of Automation (parent company of Agat, the state scientific-production association). Since 2005 he has been Assistant to the President on national security, and since 5 January 2007 a member of the Security Council of Belarus.