Belarus to deploy nuclear weapons if such weapons transferred to Poland or Lithuania - Lukashenko

MINSK. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Nuclear weapons will again be deployed in Belarus if the West deploys such weapons near the country's borders, President Alexander Lukashenko said.

"When I was talking to [French President] Emmanuel Macron yesterday, he started talking to me about the referendum, but in the context of the deployment of nuclear weapons. I said, 'Emmanuel, if it were necessary to deploy nuclear weapons, we would deploy them according to this Constitution. Nobody is stopping us from doing that. And what makes you think that I want to produce or deploy nuclear weapons here?'" Lukashenko is quoted by the BelTA state-run news agency as saying to reporters after voting in a constitutional referendum in Minsk on Sunday.

"I said this under what condition. I say it again to him: "If America or you, France, a nuclear power, transfers nuclear weapons to Poland, Lithuania, to our borders, I'm not going to deploy them here (I don't possess these weapons), I'll ask Putin to return me the weapons I once gave you without any preconditions. That is it. There are no questions," the Belarusian president said.