Lithuania suggests NATO reinforce Baltics in response to Russia’s nuclear plan for Belarus

April 4, BPN. During the Vilnius summit in July, NATO should declare an intention to reinforce the Baltic states in response to the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on April 4 in Brussels, where NATO’s top diplomats gathered for a meeting.

The Lithuanian media quotes him as saying that the plans voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin are “not just rhetoric.”

“It shouldn’t go unnoticed that July is the time they should bring the weapons,” Landsbergis said. “I think they want to have all the leaders of the free world gathered in Vilnius and just a few kilometers away they will be pulling old rockets. So, this is definitely a message for us.”

Landsbergis points out that nuclear weapons are already stationed in the Kaliningrad region, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. But the situation in Belarus, in his opinion, changes the overall security situation, so NATO’s position at the upcoming summit should be very clear.

“We are in an environment where nuclear weapons are a close reality,” the Lithuanian foreign minister said. “What we see happening in Belarus is extremely serious.” It needs to be shown that NATO is vigilant and “will strengthen the three small states that border the aggressors in the East and the Baltic Sea in the West,” he added.

Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel on March 25 that a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would be completed by July 1. The West and Belarusian democratic forces denounced this plan, while China spoke out against any nuclear wars.

On March 31, Alaksandr Łukašenka said the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus would be an attempt to protect the state, not an act of intimidation.

Moscow’s envoy to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov, said the storage facility for Russian nuclear weapons would be built near the Russian-Belarusian union’s western border.