Russia Has No Plan to Place Nuclear Weapons on Territory of Other States

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia does not intend to place its nuclear weapons on the territory of other countries, in addition to the one already located in Belarus, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.

"No, we do not plan," Ryabkov told reporters.

According to him, Russia is showing maximum responsibility in the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last March that Moscow and Minsk had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The Russian president stressed that Russia would not violate its international obligations and would do what the US has been doing for decades by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

Russia respects the fact that internal discussions about Saudi Arabia’s membership in the BRICS group are still ongoing in the kingdom, Ryabkov said.

"We respect the need for colleagues in Riyadh to continue internal discussions. We do not go deep into the nature of these discussions, because BRICS, by its nature, is an organization that denies and rejects any format that involves imposing something on someone, not to mention dictatorship," Ryabkov told reporters.