Minsk supposedly ready to cooperate with NATO

The New Voice of Ukraine
·2 min read
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Viktor Khrenin
Viktor Khrenin

Minsk is supposedly ready to cooperate with NATO, but only if the Alliance stops its “aggressive rhetoric and actions” against Belarus, the country's Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said at a briefing on Jan. 19.

"We say that the Republic of Belarus is open to military cooperation with any state,” Khrenin said.

Read also: Belarus won’t have launch authority over transferred Russian nukes – Moscow

“We are ready to resume pragmatic dialogue… Despite the actions of the governments of various countries, Belarus does not consider any nation as an enemy."

NATO has typically not used aggressive rhetoric toward Minsk. Rather, it is the Belarusian government that has made various unverified claims about the Alliance's intentions.

For example, on Mar. 31, 2023, in a speech to the Belarusian people and National Assembly, dictator Alexander Lukashenko said that NATO countries were preparing to invade the country.

Read also: Russia sends Belarus decommissioned nuclear warheads — Budanov

On June 9 2023, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would begin to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after July 7-8, a move that the United States “strongly condemned.” On June 16, Putin said that Russia had supposedly already deployed the first nuclear weapons in Belarus.

On December 26, Lukashenka said that all the Russian nuclear weapons that were to be delivered to Belarus were already in the country.

Minsk would not be able to independently use Russian nuclear weapons, Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Ryabkov, said in July 21, according to a report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.

The tactical nuclear weapons that Russia sent to Belarus were decommissioned and previously marked for dismantling, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 on Sept. 1.

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