Germany should accept outside input in deciding whether to demand the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from its territory, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 30).
"I hope that any step that will take place in the alliance [would be] in a multilateral framework and that no unilateral step be taken," Rasmussen said in Brussels, Agence France-Presse reported.
"This is a question which concerns all allies," Rasmussen said after speaking with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "It's a question of overall security and defense."
The United States is believed to keep roughly 200 B-61 gravity bombs at six sites in five European states -- Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. The weapons are the last vestiges of the thousands deployed during the Cold War, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
By one expert's measure, there are 18 nuclear weapons left in Germany after Washington withdrew 130 bombs in 2004. A document viewed by AFP lays out the intention of Germany's new coalition government to call on Washington to remove all such weapons from the country.
"We will ask the (Atlantic) Alliance and our American allies to withdraw American nuclear weapons from Germany," the document said.
Belgian lawmakers are also considering legislation that would call on the United States to pull the weapons from their nation (see GSN, Oct. 16).
NATO allies France and the United Kingdom are said to be worried that pressure to give up their nuclear arsenals could increase if Germany strips its territory of nuclear weapons.
Westerwelle, who supports denuclearization in Germany, said he backs a "political discussion and public debate on our nuclear strategy" (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 3).