The European Union claims President Lukashenko has engineered an artificial crisis by encouraging migrants - desperate to reach Germany or Western Europe - to gather on the border with Poland.
After a million refugees came to the EU in 2015 alone, the EU has embarked on policies to keep out any large new groups of asylum-seekers.
The migrants waiting on the border are finding themselves trapped in a dank forest of bogs that is growing colder, dipping into subfreezing temperatures at night.
Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg was speaking at an international conference on Belarus.
"The EU must not give in to blackmail from Lukashenko. We have to respond united and very clearly to this state-sponsored hybrid attack against the European Union. We will continue to stand with our friends in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia - and react promptly and clearly if needed."
President Lukashenko has urged Germany to accommodate about 2,000 migrants and criticized EU officials for refusing to negotiate an end to the standoff.
But a spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel says that is not a solution that is acceptable to Germany or the E-U.
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