Nuclear weapons’ removing was mistake, says Lukashenko

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he considers the decision by previous leadership to withdraw nuclear weapons from the country to be a big mistake.

“It was a great mistake to remove the nuclear weapons from Belarus,” he said.

Stanislav Shushkevich, the first-sitting president of the independent Belarusian nation, signed an agreement to hand over all nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994, declaring Belarus a nuclear-free state in exchange for security guarantees from the world's nuclear powers.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko said that the county has hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium: “We still have highly enriched uranium. Hundreds of kilograms of... weapons-grade [at least 90%-enriched] and less-enriched uranium," he said.

Commenting the situation that Belarus hasn’t been invited to participate in the Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, Alexander Lukashenko said that he hadn’t any plans to be at the meeting. He added that Russia as a partner should stick out for presence of Belarusian delegation at the summit.