NATO to debate future of nuclear arms in Europe
TALLINN. April 22. KAZINFORM NATO ministers meeting in Estonia on Thursday will debate the future of battlefield nuclear weapons and relations with Russia after Washington and Moscow agreed a major arms reduction treaty this month; Kazinform refers to The Arab News.
The US-Russian deal would cut the number of deployed long-range, "strategic" nuclear warheads by about 30 percent and is part of a broader effort by the administration of President Barack Obama to boost ties with America's former Cold War foe.
Attention now turns at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Tallinn to the estimated 200 operational battlefield, or "tactical," nuclear bombs stationed with US and allied air forces in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey.
Germany's ruling coalition, which is also keen to boost ties with Moscow, committed in November to withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from German territory, and in February, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg called for a debate about their future in Europe.
While the US administration wants in future to address the issue of battlefield nuclear weapons, which many analysts consider obsolete in the post-Cold War world, it has yet to state publicly its position. It has, however, stressed that any decision must be agreed by all 28 NATO states.
Russia, meanwhile, says it will not start destroying its massive superiority in the weapons until Washington removes its bombs from Europe, a prospect worrying to former Soviet bloc states that are now part of NATO.
Another 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; Kazinform cites The Arab News.
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