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China stresses opposition to nuclear war after Russia announces plan to send weapons to Belarus
- The country’s UN ambassador Geng Shuang told a Security Council discussion that Beijing has always maintained ‘a nuclear war cannot be fought’
- The UN session was convened after Vladimir Putin announced he would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus
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Sylvie Zhuangin Beijing
China has emphasised its opposition to the use of nuclear weapons during a United Nations discussion about Russia’s decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
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Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, speaking at a Security Council session called to discuss “threats to international peace and security”, described nuclear weapons as a “sword of Damocles hanging over our heads”.
He said that a recent paper setting out Beijing’s position on the war in Ukraine had stated that “nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear wars must not be fought, that the threat or use of nuclear weapons should be opposed, and that nuclear proliferation must be prevented and nuclear crisis avoided”.
Russia has been using Belarus as a staging ground for its troops since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine 13 months ago.
Right before the UN meeting, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, confirmed Putin’s announcement that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be deployed to his country and said Russia might also deploy strategic nuclear weapons there.
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Belarus’s ambassador to the UN, Valentin Rybakov, later said the decision was a reaction to “the challenges and risks to national security” his country faces.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a comparatively low yield and are designed to take out specific military targets, whereas strategic weapons have much greater destructive power.
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