LONDON, December 1. /TASS/. NATO does not plan to deploy nuclear weapons beyond those alliance countries where such weapons have already been present for years, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, speaking at the Reuters Next forum Wednesday.

The top NATO official answered a question whether the alliance is considering sending nuclear weapons to Poland over Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims, who proposed Moscow to deploy its nuclear weapons on the Belarusian territory.

"We have no plans of stationing any nuclear weapons in other countries than [those that] already have these nuclear weapons as part of our deterrence and that have been there for many, many years," Stoltenberg said.

Meanwhile, he pointed towards the threat, posed, in his opinion, by the new hypersonic weapons being developed by Russia and China.

"That just makes it more important that we stand together - 30 allies, North America and Europe - in strategic solidarity in NATO," Stoltenberg said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Russia noted the Belarusian leader’s words about the potential request for Russia to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus as a counterweight to NATO’s attempts to deploy such weapons in Poland.

Ryabkov underscored that Moscow does not move towards spreading nuclear weapons into neighboring non-nuclear powers, but the actions of NATO countries "undermine the existing system of international security," including by challenging the Non-Proliferation Treaty.