The new governing coalition in Berlin could face resistance from other European governments as well as NATO in seeking the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from German territory, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 23).
(Oct. 30) -
Activists demonstrate last month against the presence of nuclear weapons in Germany. A drive for the removal of U.S. nuclear bombs from the country could face opposition from France, the United Kingdom and NATO, observers said (Michael Gottschalk/Getty Images).
The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in NATO countries is an important binding force for the military alliance, one NATO diplomat said: “The weapons are the foundation of that solidarity. Take them away and what have we left?”
The official, though, challenged assertions by other NATO diplomats that the weapons serve to deter nuclear proliferation.
“The countries you mention do not give a toss about what NATO does with its weapons,” the source said, referring to nuclear programs in Pakistan, India, Iran and North Korea.
The United States is believed to keep several hundred short-range tactical nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. That is down from more than 7,300 in the early 1970s, according to the Times.
“The bombs are there because of bureaucratic resistance to change and NATO’s inability to address the issue of the future of nuclear weapons in NATO,” said Hans Kristensen, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists.
France and the United Kingdom are concerned that the German denuclearization of could increase pressure to give up their arsenals, the Times reported.
“If you remove the weapons, the whole equation between Europe and the U.S. could change. That is why some of [German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s] Atlanticist conservatives have never wanted to touch the issue. But even the conservatives are beginning to change their minds about the utility of these weapons,” said Joachim Krause, head of Christian Albrecht University's Institute for Security Policy (Judy Dempsey, New York Times, Oct. 29).