Belarus

Nuclear-weapon host state

Hosts Russian nuclear weapons

Has not yet joined the TPNW

SIGNED

RATIFIED

IN FORCE

Status

Belarus has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

National position

Belarus has consistently abstained from voting on an annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018 that welcomes the adoption of the TPNW and calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to it “at the earliest possible date”.

In 2022, the then-minister of foreign affairs of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, said: “Supporters of the international codification of norms aimed at a complete ban on nuclear weapons, who initiated the development of the [TPNW], no doubt were guided by a noble goal. However, let’s be realistic – has this led to significant shifts in the field of nuclear disarmament?”

“The question is rhetorical,” he added, “given that all countries without exception that possess nuclear weapons continue to remain outside the framework of the TPNW. It is naïve to believe that this will happen in the foreseeable future.”

Nuclear weapons in Belarus

In 2023, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced that his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. “We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” he said. “The bombs are three times more powerful than those [dropped by the United States on] Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

It marked the first time that Russia has deployed its nuclear weapons on another state’s territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Voters in Belarus approved a new national constitution in 2022 that removed the country’s previously enshrined commitment to neutrality and the absence of nuclear weapons from its territory.

Upon the break-up of the Soviet Union, Belarus inherited 81 Soviet nuclear warheads, which it subsequently transferred to Russia.

TPNW negotiations

Belarus did not participate in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and thus did not vote on its adoption.

In 2016, Belarus abstained from voting on the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence negotiations on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Before the negotiations

Prior to the adoption of the TPNW in 2017, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not subject to a comprehensive, globally applicable treaty prohibition. Belarus supported calls in the UN General Assembly fill this “legal gap”.

Further information

Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor

Belarus

Nuclear-weapon host state

Hosts Russian nuclear weapons

Has not yet joined the TPNW

Status

National position

Nuclear weapons in Belarus

TPNW negotiations

Before the negotiations

Further information

Local Partner Organizations

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