President of Kazakhstan rejects Lukashenko’s invitation to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described as a "joke" the words of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who invited Kazakhstan to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus in order to have access to nuclear weapons.
"I appreciated his joke. I think that there is no need for this, since there are other integration associations, primarily the Eurasian Economic Union. As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them," Radio Azattyq quotes Tokayev as saying.
Earlier, Lukashenko said speaking on Russian TV that if Kazakhstan or any other country wants to gain access to nuclear weapons, it should join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
"We have a union state in the EAEU, that is, a unique precedent has been created in world political history, or a phenomenon, whatever you call it - the creation of a state according to the formula "two countries - one state" with a single political, legal, military, economic, monetary, cultural, humanitarian space. With a single union government, with a single union parliament, I apologize, and even nuclear weapons arsenal is one for two now," Tokayev said at the Eurasian Economic Forum.
Tokayev warned the EAEU members about the "new reality" in connection with the nuclear deal between the Russian Federation and Belarus.
The next day, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin signed an agreement outlining the procedure for deploying Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus.