General Staff representative shed light on points dealing with nuclear weapons in Belarus’ updated Military Doctrine

The tense situation around the globe forces Belarus to improve its response mechanisms, and Artem Butorin, the Head of the Information and Analytical Department of the General Staff of Belarus’ Armed Forces, commented on the draft updated Military Doctrine that had been earlier considered at the Security Council meeting

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Explaining whether there would be a point on nuclear weapons in Belarus in the document, Mr. Butorin said, “In our Military Doctrine, we convey the idea to the international community that the deployment of nuclear weapons on our territory was an unavoidable measure. This is the strategic deterrence measure aimed at preventing conflicts, and not at using it [nuclear weapons] to achieve some allegedly ‘aggressive’ – as our opponents say – goals. As for the procedure for the use of nuclear weapons, this is not a point of the Military Doctrine: the latter just outlines the general attitude towards them. The procedure is overseen by subordinate statutory and military planning documents. As a rule, their provisons are top-secret.” The military official added it is impossible to find documents of the kind in the public domain anywhere in the world.

“As regards our allied relations, as the Defence Minister said, a separate article will be devoted to them in the Military Doctrine. It will bring together all provisions that are currently enshrined in the international treaties that we have ratified with our allies, including in the framework of international organisations. This will be a natural step. Different aspects were stipulated by different documents, and – in the Military Doctrine – we will accumulate them, as well as comprehensively outlining our attitude to how we view our alliance with our strategic partners.”

Mr. Butorin explained that the updated document will also enshrine general principles and views on how Belarus will behave towards its allies, “The Military Doctrine will retain the provision that provides that an attack on any state allied to Belarus will be considered an attack on the republic itself. In addition, this article will outline our attitude to the peacekeeping activity under the auspices of international security organisations such as the United Nations and the CSTO. We are currently involved in this activity. In order to legally fix these points, it would be more correct to include them into the Military Doctrine.”