MINSK, May 31. /TASS/. The defense ministries of Belarus and Russia are taking enough measures to ensure the security of the Union State borders, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin told the lower house of the republic’s parliament on Wednesday.
"So far, measures being taken by the [Belarusian] defense agency jointly with the Russian Federation have been enough to guarantee the security. These include the decisions taken and the clauses regulating the storage of nuclear weapons in the Republic of Belarus I recently signed with my Russian counterpart," he specified.
Belarus’ defense chief described the decision to place Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus as "an effective measure that should discourage the aggression and hostile rhetoric" emanating from neighboring countries and "prevent the conflict from escalating into a global war."
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 25 that, at Minsk’s request, Moscow would store its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus similar to what the United States had long been doing on the territory of its allies. As the Russian leader pointed out, the construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed on Belarusian territory on July 1.
Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Belarussian counterpart Khrenin signed documents in Minsk regulating the storage of Russian nukes on Belarusian soil. Later on May 25, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said an effort had already begun to move non-strategic nuclear weapons to Belarus from Russia.