Russia placing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus does not violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said according to state media Saturday.
In an interview with TASS commemorating the 55th anniversary of the signing of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), Ryabkov also said that the current situation regarding the treaty “does not inspire optimism.”
“The US and its allies are trying to use the NPT to impose their own picture of the world order and to realize their own ambitions,” Ryabkov told TASS.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is suspending his country’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.
The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that the US and Russia can have. Under the key nuclear arms control treaty, both countries are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites. However, inspections have been halted since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ryabkov also said that the US storing some of its own nuclear weapons on the territory of NATO countries in Europe “has acquired particular importance, requiring an appropriate response, including military-technical response measures.”
“The steps we have taken within the framework of the single defense space of the Union State are of a forced nature. At the same time, they do not go beyond the scope of our international obligations, including those under the NPT,” Ryabkov explained to TASS.
“It must be emphasized once again: control over Russian nuclear weapons is not transferred,” he said.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that most of the nuclear weapons Russia planned to station in Belarus had arrived. Belarus had previously had no nuclear weapons since the early 1990s, when it agreed to transfer them all to Russia after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
