Well, the US says it's no big deal, but clearly, the Chinese feel betrayed.
China renewed calls for de-escalation in
Ukraine on Monday and reminded Russia of its recent opposition to nuclear war days after President
Vladimir Putin announced plans to deploy strategic arms in neighboring Belarus.
Putin told state television on Saturday that
a storage depot for tactical nuclear weapons was being built at Minsk's request and would be completed by July. He didn't say whether the Russian weapons would be transferred to the country in the same month.
His comments—framed as a response to a similar posture adopted by the United States—appeared to
undermine a position he took with Chinese counterpart
Xi Jinping just days earlier, when the two leaders reaffirmed their opposition to nuclear war and jointly opposed the deployment of nuclear weapons abroad during the latter's high-profile state visit to Moscow.
Vladimir Putin told Russian state television over the weekend that he would soon deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
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