Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry Konstantin Vorontsov has said that Russian tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) will be deployed in Belarus as long as there is an American nuclear arsenal in Europe. The Russian diplomat said this while speaking at a meeting of the First Committee (on Disarmament) of the UN General Assembly.
Konstantin Vorontsov believes that a dialogue on revising the agreements between Moscow and Minsk in the context of TNW deployment in the Union State of the Republic of Belarus is unrealistic. According to the diplomat, the conversation about changing the current situation of Russian-Belarusian cooperation is possible only under the appropriate condition of the withdrawal of American nuclear weapons from Europe with the elimination of the relevant infrastructure.
The Russian diplomat stressed that the deployment of Russian TNWs in the Union State cannot be considered as a violation of the nuclear-free status of Belarus. The civil servant noted that the Republic of Belarus continues to be in the same position, as full control over this type of weaponry is exercised by the Russian Federation.
“We consider it sufficient to recall that the Budapest Memorandum was an element of the process to ensure the successful accession of Belarus to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear-weapon state. This is what this country undoubtedly remains today,” Vorontsov explains.