Germany locking horns with US over maintaining nuclear deterrence
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Feb 27, IRNA -- Germany has been at odds with the US over the need to maintain nuclear deterrence, triggering new tensions in transatlantic relations.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle openly defied calls by his American colleague Hillary Clinton not to question the continued importance of having a nuclear deterrence by urging NATO to discuss nuclear disarmament at its next meeting in the Estonian capital Tallin in April.
Westerwelle who has been outspoken in his demands for the withdrawal of US atomic weapons from German territory, has reportedly drafted a letter to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in which he and his counterparts from the Benelux countries and Norway are calling on the western military alliance to discuss NATO's future nuclear strategy.
The letter was scheduled to be sent to the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium over the next few days, according to the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel.
Westerwelle's drive to put nuclear disarmament on the agenda of NATO's next meeting comes in the wake of recent keynote speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington where she reaffirmed the need for Europeans to hold on to nuclear deterrence.
"This dangerous world still requires deterrence and we know there's a debate going on in Europe and even among some of our leading member nations about, well, what does that mean," she said, clearly alluding to Germany.
"We would hope that there is no precipitous move made that would undermine the deterrence capability," Clinton added.
Reacting to the controversy, Westerwelle said his disarmament plan was not aimed against American nuclear strategy.
We are taking US President Barack Obama "by his words" when he outlined his nuclear disarmament in his "unprecedented speech in Prague," the minister added.
He stressed that disarmament would remain a "core issue of German foreign policy."
"We want to ensure that the next decade is a disarmament decade and not a devastating decade of rearmament," Westerwelle said.
Berlin's efforts to take a lead role in global nuclear disarmament has also been harshly criticized by former NATO secretary general George Robertson.
"For Germany to want to remain under the nuclear umbrella while exporting to others the obligation of maintaining it, is irresponsible," Robertson wrote in a recent report, titled "Germany Opens Pandora's Box."
Robertson also lambasted Westerwelle's for calling for the removal of all US nukes from German soil, branding it "simply dangerous."
Westerwelle has made clear that American nuclear weapons were "no longer serving Germany's security interests."
At least 20 American atomic warheads are reportedly deployed underground at a German air base in the southwestern town of Buechel where they can be mounted on German-made Tornado fighter jets.
Critics of Westerwelle have accused him of instrumentalizing the pullout of US atomic arms for domestic political gains.
Westerwelle's liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) is facing a major drop in public approval ratings ahead of key regional elections in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in May.
Germany has already kicked off talks on removing all US atomic weapons from its soil, according to Westerwelle.
"The federal (German) government is pursuing the withdrawal of all atomic weapons from Germany in coordination with its allies and partners and has conducted preliminary talks," Westerwelle was quoted saying in a recent foreign ministry press statement.
Westerwelle had earlier pledged to hold swift negotiations on the withdrawal of US atomic weapons from Germany in a bid to have an "atomic weapons-free country," as part of the coalition agreement between the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its junior coalition partner, the FDP.
Assessing Westerwelle's overall nuclear disarmament strategy, a Berlin-based journalist with close links to the German Foreign Ministry told IRNA on condition of anonymity, "It remains to be seen whether Westerwelle's approach will really work but an open challenge to the US on the nuclear disarmament issue won't really help his case." "That notwithstanding, it is Chancellor Angela Merkel who is making the final call on all key German foreign policies, and not a novice like Westerwelle whose diplomatic skills leave a lot to be desired," he added.
Political observers expect Merkel to take up the matter of NATO's future nuclear strategy when she visits the US in April to attend an international nuclear disarmament conference following an invitation by American President Barack Obama.
OT**1432
End News / IRNA / News Code 982754
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
