Against Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in Belarus

The Belarus Freedom Forum calls upon the U.S. Government to condemn any current or potential plans to deploy Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus. Belarus has been a nuclear-free country since 1996, maintaining its commitment to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on non-proliferation in exchange for security assurances by the United States. The American commitment to the sovereignty of Belarus has ensured a peaceful future for the country and strategic balance in the region. Lukashenka is willing to upset that balance in exchange for Russian support of his oppressive regime. 

The Belarus Freedom Forum finds any possibility of WMD deployment in Belarus to be unacceptable. It goes against the country’s law and existing international treaties and will dramatically escalate the tensions between Russia and the United States.

With this in mind, we urge the Biden-Harris Administration and the members of the U.S. Congress to denounce in the strongest terms any possibility of WMD deployment in Belarus and to reaffirm the United States’ unequivocal commitment to the Budapest memorandum as one of the last legal instruments preventing nuclear proliferation in Eastern Europe.