Global Research

5th February, 2010

Global Research Editor’s note

US made tactical B61 bunker buster nuclear warheads are stockpiled and deployed by six European countries including five non-nuclear states, including Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands.

It is worth noting that while Germany has deploys US made tactical nuclear weapons, it also produces nuclear warheads for the French Navy, in a joint venture relationship between Deutsche Aerospace and Aerospatiale Matra, which are the main shareholders in the Franco-German-Spanish defense conglomerate EADS (European Aerospace Defense Systems Corporation)

Michel  Chossudovsky, 5 February 2010

Itar-Tass
MOSCOW– US tactical nuclear arms should be withdrawn from Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Thursday.

“Issues of further nuclear disarmament, including tactical nuclear arms, should not be addressed as such, but only in close relation with other types of weapons, including conventional armed forces in Europe and the ballistic missile defence systems,” he said.

Russia is adamant that nuclear arms should be deployed only in the territory of the states possessing such weapons.

“In this context, withdrawal of American tactical weapons from Europe back to the United States would be welcome. It should be accompanied by complete and irreversible demolition of the entire infrastructures supporting the deployment of such weapons in Europe,” he noted.

Commenting on the recent article by Swedish and Polish foreign ministers, Karl Bildt and Radoslaw Sikorski, in which they called on Moscow to withdraw tactical nuclear arms from Russian territories bordering on the European Union, the foreign ministry spokesman said that “it would be good if the authors of this article furnished their explanations – namely: if their opinion heralded a shift in the common European position and readiness for a closer, open and comprehensive dialogue on all aspects of European security.”