According to Makei, NATO has come close to the borders of Belarus, and the activity of the alliance and the number of military exercises have increased significantly.
“What President Alexander Lukashenko said that we are considering the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus is one of the possible responses to future possible actions by the North Atlantic Alliance on the territory of Poland,” the minister said.
Makei also said that the alliance is now creating a certain bridgehead against Russia in Ukraine, and the NATO leadership is using the ongoing in the country to build up capabilities in the region.
Earlier in an interview with RIA Novosti, Lukashenko said that Belarus would offer Russia to place its nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory if NATO takes a similar step in Poland.
These words should be taken as a warning to the West, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said later during his speech at the Federation Council.
“I would take this statement as a very serious warning, which is dictated, first of all, by the reckless policy pursued by the West,” Lavrov said (quoted by RIA Novosti).
On November 19, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allowed the transfer of US nuclear weapons east of Germany if she refused to keep them. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in response that such a step would violate the provisions of the Russia-NATO Founding Act, under which the alliance abandoned its intentions to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members. The agreement between Russia and NATO was concluded in May 1997. Poland joined NATO in 1999, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia five years later.
In the late 1980s. there were about 1,180 strategic and tactical nuclear warheads on the territory of the BSSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus in July 1994 joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, under which it pledged to renounce nuclear weapons. This process was completed in November 1996. Lukashenko later called this decision “a cruel mistake” – in his opinion, the presence of such weapons would give the country leverage over Western countries.
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