This week's referendum in Belarus on amending the country's constitution is "worrying", especially the changes that would end Belarus's neutrality and pave the way for the use of nuclear weapons on its soil, according to Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio
"The referendum talking place in Belarus on 27 February is worrying," Di Maio told Italy's lower house of parliament on Wednesday.
"Article 18 of the revised constitution no longer contains the concept of Belarus's neutrality and furthermore opens the door to nuclear arms being deployed on its territory," Di Maio warned.
A draft of the proposed amendments to Belarus's constitution presented for nationwide discussion in December expands powers of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly and removes the "non-nuclear" and "neutral" clauses from the constitution.
An independent panel of experts that advises the Council of Europe has slammed the proposed reforms to Belarus's constitution. They "fail to correct the strong imbalance of powers which already exists under the current constitution and indeed may even aggravate it," the human rights and democracy watchdog cited the panel as saying on Tuesday.
The Venice Commission also criticised the lack of involvement by Belarus's parliament and of transparency in drafting the proposed amendments and "obvious absence of meaningful cooperation between the government and the opposition in exile, as well as with other stakeholders and civil society," the Council of Europe said.
