Kazakhstan does not need to join the state union of Russia and Belarus, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, but said he appreciated Alexander Lukashenko’s “joke” on the matter, Interfax reports.

“The other day, the President of the Republic of Belarus Oleksandr Ryhorovych Lukashenko offered Kazakhstan to join the state union. I appreciated his joke. I believe that there is no need for this, because there are other forms of integration, primarily the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU),” Tokayev said in a statement released by the press service of his office.

“As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them because we have joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. We remain faithful to our obligations in these international documents,” added the President of Kazakhstan.

His comments came after Lukashenko said in an interview with propagandist Pavel Zarubin the other day that Russia would provide nuclear weapons to any state that joins the Russia-Belarus state union, directly referring to Kazakhstan.

“If anyone is worried… I don’t think that Kasym Tokayev is worried about this, but if suddenly something happens, then no one will be upset if Kazakhstan and other countries that have the same close relations as we have with the Russian Federation . It’s very simple. We need to join the Union of Belarus with Russia and that’s it: nuclear weapons will be for everyone,” said the Belarusian dictator.

How Tokayev mocked Putin and Lukashenko in Moscow

In a press release issued on Monday, Kazakhstan’s presidency also referred to the recent UEE summit held last week in Moscow, again suggesting that the organization should primarily focus on economic integration.

“Recently, a meeting of the Supreme Council of the UEE was held in Moscow. We talked about the fact that, first of all, it is necessary to solve the issues of economic interaction, integration and cooperation. Trade should be unrestricted. We must make every effort to create a single product market,” Tokayev said in a statement.

At the summit, the Kazakh president also emphasized that “integration within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union is, first of all, of an economic nature” and that “any other areas specified in the strategy, of course, have the right to exist, but they must be analyzed through the prism of economics”.

Separately, the President of Kazakhstan focused on the issue of the creation of a union state of Belarus and Russia and its impact on the EAEC. According to Tokayev, this is “a unique precedent for the creation of a state according to the formula two countries – one state.”

“Excuse me, but even nuclear weapons are now one for two,” he added, referring to Moscow’s intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

This is a “very different level of integration” of Russia with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, Tokayev noted, offering to discuss this issue at the meeting.

The video recorded how, after these words of the president of Kazakhstan, Putin leaned over to the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who was sitting next to him, and said something to him, and then they shook hands.

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