Foreign Ministry on deployment of TNW in Belarus: our forced defensive actions completely justified

The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus has become a forced defensive action in response to measures taken by NATO countries – as stated by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, sb.by reports

In its statement the Foreign Ministry noted, “Taking into account that most EU countries are not only members of the world's most armed military-political North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), but also disproportionately increase their military capabilities, the EU's condemnation of steps to implement the sovereign right of Belarus to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, carried out in full accordance with international law, allows to state with confidence that our forced defensive actions are completely justified."

The Foreign Ministry added that the European Union's mention of the Budapest Memorandum does not stand up to any criticism. For example, Article 1 of this document obliges the guarantor countries represented by the United States and the United Kingdom ‘to respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of the Republic of Belarus’. In turn, Article 3 establishes that the guarantor countries will ‘refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their interests the exercise by the Republic of Belarus of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus ensure to secure advantages of any kind’.

"In this regard, we remind you that the first illegal economic sanctions against Belarus were imposed by the EU more than 20 years ago, and all these years Western countries categorically refused to discuss their direct violations of the document, and some even stated that it had no legal force for them," the Foreign Ministry stressed.