Russian nuclear deployment in line with non-proliferation treaty, Minsk says

The move is in response to “unprecedented political, economic and informational pressure” from the United States, United Kingdom and their NATO allies, he noted.

He described Western sanctions along with a military buildup in the neighboring NATO states as interference in the internal affairs of Belarus in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that provides security assurances relating to the country’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Hłaz stressed.

Additional training of Belarusian pilots and an upgrade of its military aircraft to carry nuclear munitions, as well as the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus do not violate the NPT because Minsk will have no access to the nuclear arsenal, he said.

NATO allowed its allies to fly aircraft with nuclear weapons and train personnel for such missions, he went on to say. European NATO allies store over 150 US tactical nuclear weapons and host more than 250 aircraft to carry them, Hłaz said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 25 that a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1.

The UN Security Council is expected to discuss the issue this week.