Stoltenberg: Help by China to Russia would be a historic mistake

"Any help to Russia from China will be a big mistake and will have profound consequences. China has not been able to condemn the brutal invasion of Ukraine, it signed a partnership agreement with Russia with no limits," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg stressed in his comments during a press conference on Wednesday.

Russia's announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to "empty promises", Stoltenberg said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

He said this showed such statements are "empty promises and what we need to watch closely is what Russia is doing."

Stoltenberg said NATO had not seen any signs so far that Russia was following through on Putin's announcement.