Moscow and Minsk have agreed to station Russia's tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, without breaching Russia's commitments on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2023) Moscow and Minsk have agreed to station Russia's tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, without breaching Russia's commitments on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Putin cited his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, as saying that the United States freely stationed its tactical nuclear weapons on the territories of its allies and taught their crews "to operate this type of weapons, if necessary."
"We agreed that ... we will do the same, without violating our obligations � I want to stress this � without violating our international obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons," Putin told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
The Russian leader also said that there was "nothing extraordinary" in this regard.
"First of all, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have been deploying their tactical nuclear weapons on the territories of their allies, NATO countries, in Europe for a long time. They are (presented) in six countries, if my memory serves, Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Greece. Greece does not have it right now, but it has a storage facility," the Russian leader specified.
The construction of the tactical nuclear weapons storage in Belarus will be completed on July 1, Putin said, adding that the training of crews would start on April 3.
