President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated that if any other country wants to join the union Russia-Belarusthere is “nuclear weapons for all”.

Last week, Russia moved ahead with its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, the first time the Kremlin has deployed such weapons outside of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, raising concerns in the West.

In an interview aired late Sunday on Russian state television, Lukashenko, President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest ally among Russia’s neighbors, said it was necessary to “strategically understand” that Minsk and Moscow had a unique opportunity to come together.

“No one is against Kazakhstan and other countries that have the same close relations as we have with the Russian Federation,” Lukashenka said.

“If someone is worried… it’s very simple: join the Union State of Belarus and Russia. That’s it: everyone will have nuclear weapons.” He added that this is his own point of view, not the Russian one.

Russia and Belarus are officially members of the Union State, a borderless union and union of two former Soviet republics.

President of Kazakhstan Kasim-Jomart Tokayevwhose country of 20 million has close historical ties to Moscow but has refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine, and declined Lukashenka’s invitation to join the union.

“I appreciated his jokeTokayev made the announcement in a message from his office on the Telegram app, adding that Kazakhstan is already a member of the broader Russian-led trading bloc of the Eurasian Economic Union, so there is no need for further integration.

“As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them, because we have joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Total Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” he said. in Moscow and Minsk.

“We remain committed to our obligations under these international instruments.”

Russia used Belarusian territory to launch its invasion of neighboring Ukraine last February, and their military cooperation has intensified since then, with high schools co-educating on Belarusian soil.

Yesterday, on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus reported that another unit of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems arrived from Moscow, which will be ready for hostilities in the near future.

Reuters