Belarus on Friday adopted a new military doctrine that \u2013 if approved \u2013 would be the first step toward deploying nuclear weapons across the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of the Republic of Belarus is considered an important measure of the preventive deterrence for potential adversaries from unleashing armed aggression against the Republic of Belarus,\u201d Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin told a briefing Friday. <\/p>\n
Belarus had been \u201cforced\u201d to put the measure in place, he added. <\/p>\n
According to Khrenin, \u201ca separate chapter was created\u201d to describe the course of actions \u201cin the event of armed aggression\u201d against Belarus\u2019 allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Union State. <\/p>\n
The CSTO is a Russian-dominated group of six post-Soviet states, that, similar to NATO, requires members to come to each other\u2019s aid when under attack. <\/p>\n
Formed in 2002, the six countries are Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus. <\/p>\n
The Union State of Belarus and Russia Treaty sets up a legal basis for a wide-ranging alliance between the two countries. <\/p>\n
Khrenin emphasized that the new doctrine demonstrates that Belarus \u201cdoes not treat any nation as its enemy, regardless of the actions of the governments of these nations.\u201d <\/p>\n
The doctrine still requires approval from the All-Belarusian People\u2019s Assembly, a representative body that operates in Belarus in parallel with the parliament, which will be held in April, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti. <\/p>\n
Khrenin said the interest of his government lies in \u201crestoring the influence of international security organizations such as the UN, OSCE and others, and their effective functioning in preventing and resolving armed conflicts.\u201d <\/p>\n
Belarus \u201cis open to cooperation in the military sphere with any countries, including NATO states,\u201d he said, \u201cprovided their aggressive rhetoric against Belarus is stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n
Minsk has played a key role in Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. Last June, Russian nuclear warheads were reportedly delivered to Belarus for \u201cdeterrence,\u201d according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. <\/p>\n
Two months later, while stressing that his country would not get involved in the war, President Alexander Lukashenko warned that it would \u201cimmediately respond with everything we have,\u201d including nuclear weapons if provoked \u2013 especially by neighboring NATO countries like Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. <\/p>\n
The move by Belarus came as neighboring Baltic states signed an agreement to reinforce their borders with Belarus and Russia. <\/p>\n
In a statement Friday, the Estonian Defense Ministry said the country had signed an agreement with Latvia and Lithuania to \u201cconstruct anti-mobility defensive installations\u201d on the borders with Russia and Belarus that will \u201cdeter and, if necessary, defend against military threats\u201d in the coming years. <\/p>\n
The ministry called it \u201ca carefully considered and thought-out project, the need of which stems from the current security situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The concept of defensive installations includes \u201cprevention and field security measures,\u201d such as \u201ca network of bunkers, support points, and distribution lines,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s war in Ukraine has shown that in addition to equipment, ammunition, and manpower, physical defensive installations on the border are also needed to defend Estonia from the first meter,\u201d said Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian Minister of Defense. <\/p>\n
The countries\u2019 defense ministers also signed \u201ca Letter of Intent for HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, aiming to create a framework for the joint use of the weapon system in both peace and wartime,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
During an interview with state news agency Belta in August last year, Belarusian leader Alexander\u00a0Lukashenko said his country did not \u201cbring nuclear weapons here in order to scare someone.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNuclear weapons represent a strong deterring factor. But these are tactical nuclear weapons, not strategic ones. This is why we will use them immediately once aggression is launched against us,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n
Belarus on Friday adopted a new military doctrine that \u2013 if approved \u2013 would be the first step toward deploying nuclear weapons across the country. \u201cThe deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of the Republic of Belarus is considered an important measure of the preventive deterrence for potential adversaries from unleashing armed aggression <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}