Lukashenko Voices Support for Putin's INF Weapon Moratorium Proposal

MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2019) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has voiced support for Russia's proposal to global leaders to introduce a moratorium on deploying weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), pledging to send a response letter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier on Friday that he had not yet received any response from the global leaders. Putin voiced the belief that the United States was ignoring the proposal deliberately, while its allies were unable to make any decision independently.

"Vladimir Vladimirovich, we support you fully on the matter. We will prepare and send you a letter, which will be a response to the statement that you have sent to the whole world.

We should seriously pay attention to this. This is not solely a problem of Russia that seeks restoring status quo and maintaining control over highly dangerous weapons. We should avoid the appearance of such missiles in Europe," Lukashenko said at the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as quoted by the presidential press service.

The INF deal, signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987, was terminated on August 2 at the US' initiative after the country formally suspended its INF obligations six months earlier. Both countries had repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal, which banned any ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,417 miles).