Russia's nuclear weapons plans in Belarus 'dangerous and irresponsible': NATO

NATO on Sunday backfired on Russia's nuclear weapons rhetoric calling it "dangerous and irresponsible.” This comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would station tactical nuclear weapons inside the territory of its ally Belarus.

“NATO is vigilant, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own,” reported Reuters quoting a spokesperson for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“Russia’s reference to NATO’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. NATO allies act with full respect of their international commitments. Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty.”

The agreement between Minsk and Moscow is a historic one since the mid-1990s as Russia has not been stationing such tactical nuclear weapons outside its own boundaries.

"There is nothing unusual here either: the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long placed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allies," Putin said while substantiating the agreement it reached with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, reported AFP.

Putin made it clear that his action does not violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which is the cornerstone of international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

"We agreed that we will do the same - without violating our obligations, I emphasize, without violating our international obligations on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons."

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Putin's declaration was met with unanimous condemnation from the US and Ukraine. According to Reuters news agency, a senior US administration official stated that Moscow and Minsk had discussed such an agreement during the previous year and added that there were no indications Russia wanted to deploy its nuclear weapons.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky's senior security advisor also criticised Russian intentions to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. He claimed that taking such action would destabilise Belarus. He claimed Russia had taken Belarus "hostage."

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