Belarus abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution in 2018 that welcomed the adoption of the treaty and called upon “all states that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the treaty at the earliest possible date”.

In 2016, Belarus abstained from voting on the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence the negotiations in 2017 on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Prior to the adoption of the treaty 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”.

Upon the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus inherited 81 Soviet nuclear warheads, which it subsequently transferred to Russia.