NATO calls for the rapid withdraw of U.S. Nukes Out of Europe

[vector7]

Five NATO States Want U.S. Nukes Out of Europe, Report Says

Friday, Feb. 19, 2010

Five European nations are set to call on the United States to remove all nuclear weapons from the continent, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Feb. 17).


(Feb. 19) - A fighter jet takes off from Aviano Air Force Base in Italy, a site believed to store U.S. nuclear weapons (U.S. Air Force photo).

NATO members Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway are expected to make the request "in the coming weeks" that "nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed," according to a spokesman for Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme.

"It's a question of launching the debate at the heart of NATO," Dominique Dehaene said.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are believed to hold some of the roughly 200 U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that remain in Europe, though most are estimated to be in Italy and Turkey. At the height of tensions with the then-Soviet Union, the United States reportedly fielded thousands of such armaments on the continent.

The request would not address the nuclear arsenals of France and the United Kingdom, AFP reported.

"Belgium is in favor of a world without nuclear weapons and advocates this position at the heart of NATO," ahead of the May review conference for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Leterme said in a prepared statement (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 19).

The former head of NATO joined three other Belgian statesmen today in similarly calling for the withdrawal of the European-based U.S. deterrent, according to AFP.

"The Cold War is over. It's time to adapt our nuclear policy to the new circumstances," according to a statement signed by former NATO chief Willy Claes, former Belgian Prime Ministers Jean-Luc Dehaene and Guy Verhofstadt and former Foreign Minister Louis Michel.

"The U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe have lost all military importance," adds the statement, which was published in a number of Belgian newspapers.

"We call on our (Belgian) government to follow the example of the German government and to call in NATO for a rapid withdrawal of the nuclear arms," the authors wrote (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2009).

Present NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has cautioned any nation against rushing to divest itself of the U.S. weapons, AFP reported.

"I hope that any step will take place in the alliance in a multilateral framework and that no unilateral step be taken," Rasmussen said last fall. "This is a question which concerns all allies. It's a question of overall security and defense" (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 19).

[vector7]

Allied bid for Obama to remove US European nuclear stockpile

By Pascal Mallet (AFP) – 2 days ago

BRUSSELS — European NATO allies are to urge President Barack Obama to remove all remaining US nuclear weapons from European soil, as domestic pressure grows to rid its soil of outdated Cold War-era aerial bombs.

Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call "in the coming weeks" for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme told AFP.

A joint proposal by the five NATO members will demand "that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed," Dominique Dehaene said.

Only the United States has nuclear arms stored in other NATO member states in Europe, he added. The proposal does not refer to the distinct, and more modern British and French nuclear arsenals.

"It's a question of launching the debate at the heart of NATO," Dehaene stressed, underlining it would form part of broader disarmament talks also focused on conventional weapons.

Former NATO chief Willy Claes and three more senior Belgian political figures urged such a call in Friday's Belgian press, citing "Obama's pledge to work to eliminate all nuclear weapons."

A statement from Leterme stressed that "Belgium is in favour of a world without nuclear weapons and advocates this position at the heart of NATO," in preparation for a New York conference in May on global nuclear arms non-proliferation efforts.

Leterme said an initiative would be launched under a strategic NATO rethink due to be adopted by leaders of NATO countries in Lisbon in November.

Spokesman Dehaene said that plan includes addressing what to do about some 220 aerial atomic bombs held on military bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

According to experts, Italy and Turkey house about 90 of these nuclear warheads each.

There are about 20 each in Germany, where 130 atomic bombs were withdrawn in 2004, and Belgium.

These bombs are considered by military experts to be outdated because they are essentially dropped by pilots.

"The Cold War is over. It's time to adapt our nuclear policy to the new circumstances," wrote Claes, fellow former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and former prime ministers Jean-Luc Dehaene and Guy Verhofstadt.

"The US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe have lost all military importance," the four said in joint statements which appeared in several Belgian daily newspapers

It was agreed at the end of last year, after Germany sought the withdrawal of the warheads there, that all calls for the removal of these weapons be done on a NATO-wide basis, and not unilaterally.

Allied diplomats stressed that the removal of these arms from Europe would neither represent the end of the US nuclear deterrent on behalf of its allies, nor the denuclearisation of NATO.

The call coincides with a new threat by Russia to base missiles in its western exclave Kaliningrad, which borders the European Union, amid growing controversy over a new US missile shield plan.

Moscow in September said it scrapped plans to place short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad after the United States shelved a controversial missile shield plan for central Europe.

But it expressed concern after Romania said this month it would hold talks with Washington on hosting US missile interceptors and Bulgaria showed an interest in taking part in a US missile shield.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

[vector7]

Germany to U.S.: Take your nukes!
Demands could result in serious strategic consequences in free world

Posted: February 20, 2010
12:15 am Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily



Germany wants the United States to remove its nuclear weapons from German soil, with officials describing them as a "relic of the Cold War," according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The issue, which has reappeared after some thought it had been laid to rest, has strategic implications for the two nations.

When conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel was campaigning last September for office she opposed having U.S. weapons removed.

At the time, then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, running as the center-left Social Democratic Party's official candidate for chancellor against Merkel, called for removal.

"These weapons are militarily obsolete today," Steinmeier said at the time.

But Merkel opposed the idea, saying their presence in Germany would give the country a major say in the policies and direction of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

In fact, she supported the NATO doctrine of "nuclear sharing," in which a non-nuclear country such as Germany that hosts a third country's nuclear weapons has a say in decision-making.

Having U.S. nuclear weapons on German soil, Merkel said at the time, ensures Germany's "influence in the defense alliance, including in this highly sensitive area."

But now her views have changed, as reflected in a written policy statement of her conservative party: "We will advocate within (NATO) Alliance and with our American allies the removal of the remaining nuclear weapons from Germany," the document states.

Although Merkel won re-election as chancellor, she appointed another foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, who advocates the removal of nuclear weapons.

According to informed sources, Westerwelle is obsessed with domestic issues and has been looking for a foreign policy matter that would resonate with German voters. With the removal of U.S. nukes from German soil, he apparently has found it.

Westerwelle, who represents Free Democrats, had joined Merkel's conservatives as a minor coalition partner to help ensure her election victory.

The flap is the latest in a roller-coaster relationship between the U.S. and Germany.

Other issues that have begun to put a strain on the relationship include Germany committing more troops to Afghanistan, when the prevalent view among German voters is to get out. Indeed, the Obama Administration has asked European members who belong to NATO to commit more troops, but the response has been less than expected.

[vector7]

European Nations Seek NATO Nuclear Debate

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Five European NATO member nations on Friday urged the military alliance to conduct a "major debate" next month over its stance on nuclear weapons, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 19).

The top diplomats for Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway called for the debate in a letter to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Belgian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday. The discussion should take place at the next meeting of NATO foreign ministers, scheduled for April 22 in Estonia, the Belgian statement quoted the letter as stating.

The five states are believed to have come together to press for the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe.

"Tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are an essential issue in the goal of a denuclearized world," the Belgian Foreign Ministry said in the press release.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are believed to hold some of the roughly 200 U.S. tactical nuclear bombs that remain in Europe, though most are reportedly deployed in Italy and Turkey.

At the height of tensions with the then-Soviet Union, the United States reportedly fielded thousands of such armaments on the continent (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, March 2).

[American Patriot]

This is the signal, though the current Administration won't recognize it as such, to increase the missile defense capabilities of the United States.

We're going to need it in a few years.

Not very many to be sure.

[vector7]

NATO Debates U.S. Nuclear Weapons

23 April 2010
Reuters

Timur Nisametdinov / AP

Paet talking to Clinton, who reiterated Washington’s defense commitments, at their meeting Thursday in Tallinn.

TALLINN, Estonia — NATO ministers debated on Thursday whether to do away with U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons in Europe, and Washington said it was committed to defending former Soviet states nervous about Russia.

Attention has turned to so-called “tactical” nuclear bombs stationed in NATO countries and Russia since Washington and Moscow this month signed a deal to cut the number of deployed long-range, “strategic” nuclear warheads by about 30 percent.

Germany’s ruling coalition committed in November to the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from German territory. In February, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg called for a debate about their future in Europe.

Russia says, however, that it will not start destroying its massive superiority in the weapons until Washington removes its bombs from Europe, a prospect that is worrying to former Soviet bloc states that are now part of NATO.

At a news conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to reassure former Soviet states that view battlefield nuclear weapons as a symbol of U.S. commitment to collective defense.

“Let me be clear: our commitment to Estonia and our other allies is a bedrock principle for the United States and we will never waiver from it,” she said in the Estonian capital.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that while the 28-member Western security alliance must debate the matter, he personally thought U.S. nuclear weapons must stay in Europe.

“I do believe that the presence of American nuclear weapons in Europe is an essential part of a credible deterrent,” he told reporters.
A senior U.S. official said Clinton would lay out some guiding principles during the dinner meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Tallinn.

Washington and Rasmussen have stressed the need for unity among the 28 NATO states and while no agreement is expected in Tallinn, the alliance aims to set out its nuclear stance in a new strategic vision due to be approved at a summit in November.

Analysts say tactical nuclear arms have little military rationale in a post-Cold War world, especially since readiness had been so reduced that they would take months to deploy.

But a key concern is that any move to remove NATO nuclear weapons could prompt Turkey to develop its own deterrent, given its worries about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said there were too many tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, but there needed to be a reciprocal agreement with Russia, which has an arsenal estimated at 5,400 weapons, 2,000 of which are deployable, against an estimated 200 NATO operational weapons.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said it was time to make progress with disarmament but pledged not to take unilateral steps.

“The Americans included in their concept that tactical nuclear weapons might be reduced. This is big progress compared to the situation a few months ago,” he said. “Of course we would not go it alone and would coordinate it within the alliance.”