European Leaders Call to Reduce NATO Nuclear Weapons

On Wednesday, 30 European leaders, including former Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers released a joint statement declaring that "NATO should make disarmament a core element of its approach to providing security."

As pointed out by the Arms Control Association, a Ploughshares grantee, U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe "serve no meaningful military role for the defense of Europe today."  NATO itself sees these weapons as mostly a political symbol for promoting alliance cohesion.  Despite the decreasing utility and increasing liability of nuclear weapons it is estimated that 200 U.S. tactical nuclear weapons remain on NATO airbases in Belgium, Germany,Italy,the Netherlands and Turkey.  

The European leaders' joint statement precedes the NATO Lisbon Summit at which the Alliance is expected to release its new Strategic Concept which will outline NATO policy on many issues - including nuclear weapons - for years to come. The joint statement called for the Alliance to make a serious commitment to bolstering the nonproliferation regime.  Recognizing the link between nonproliferation and disarmament, the joint statement recommends that leaders at the Lisbon Summit include key text in the new Strategic Concept, including:

• There is an urgent need for reducing the roles and risks of nuclear weapons in security policies globally. NATO is prepared to make a significant contribution to that process. 
• Non-strategic nuclear weapons have lost their original role of deterring massive conventional superiority. Therefore, NATO is willing to support a further reduction and consolidation of U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe.

Withdrawing NATO's nuclear weapons would be consistent with the Obama administration's policy goal of reducing the role and numbers of nuclear weapons in the United States' security strategy.  Following the ratification of the New START treaty, which pursues U.S. and Russian reductions in strategic nuclear weapons, Obama has pledges to seek russian cooperation in reducing the number of tactical nuclear weapons deployed in and around Europe.

As the European leaders' joint statement points out, the new challenge for NATO will be to "simultaneously maintain its own cohesion while moving to strengthen the global non-proliferation regime and further reduce urgent nuclear dangers."  Prudently, they recognized that key steps in meeting such challenges begin with reductions of U.S. tactical nukes.