MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. The Defense and Security Committee of the Federation Council endorsed a law to ratify a security pact between Russia and Belarus within the framework of the Union State, a source attending the committee meeting told TASS.
The Federation Council is set to review the agreement, signed in Minsk on December 6, 2024, at a plenary meeting on February 26.
President Vladimir Putin submitted the pact for ratification to the State Duma lower house. Under the treaty, the states undertake to support each other by all means mutually agreed upon and permissible under international law, and to take appropriate political, military, and other actions in cases of threats to the security of either country and the Union State as a whole.
According to the treaty, the states will consider an armed attack on a member of the Union State as an act of aggression against the Union State as a whole and will take appropriate countermeasures using all forces and means at their disposal.
Also, the countries consider Russia’s nuclear weapons as an important factor in preventing nuclear military conflicts and military conflicts involving the use of conventional weapons, serving as a tool of deterrence, the use of which is an exceptional and last-resort measure.
It says that Russia’s nuclear weapons can be used in response to the use of nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction against any of the parties to the pact. It can also be used in case of aggression against any of the parties with the use of conventional weapons that create a grave risk to its sovereignty or territorial integrity. The decision on the use of Russia’s nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of Belarus to protect it is made in accordance with the protocol established by the parties.