For the first time since the 1980s, there is debate about the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's rulling partners are reconsidering their support for a decade's old arrangement that puts Germany under the U.S. nuclear shield. This is a development that further adds to the country's growing tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The center-left Social Democrats, or SPD, have created a commission to re-evaluate their position on strategic, foreign and security policy, including the merits of "nuclear sharing." Nuclear sharing is a Cold War era agreement under which German warplanes would be used to launch U.S. nuclear weapons in the case of a Russian attack on Europe. (Wall Street Journal, 2-12-19).
According to SPD officials, these deliberations came partly as a result of Donald Trump's withdrawl from a treaty with Russia that regulates the presence of nuclear missiles in Europe. This is the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which is an arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. The U.S. decision to withdrawl from the INF treaty is an act of dangerous insanity that brings the U.S. and Russia closer to war.
The SPD move to re-evaluate their position of nuclear sharing with the United States shows that NATO's cohesion is under threat from the center-left forces in Europe.
Ms. Merkel's party is continuing to back the U.S. German agreement. However, a decision by its junior coalition partner to oppose nuclear sharing would be momentous, and put into question Germany's membership in NATO, which it has been a part of since 1955.
What hasn't helped is that consecutive U.S. administrations have criticized Germany for what they call insufficient military spending. And the dispute has escalated under President Trump, who has put Berlin under notice to boost its defense budget.
German political parties that are critical of U.S. President Trump are tapping into a common public sentiment in Germany. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey for the Munich Security Conference, a global security forum, showed only 10% of Germans thought the U.S. President was doing the right thing regarding world affairs, compared with 35% for Russian President Vladimir Putin and 30% for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A spokesperson for Ms. Merkel said the government would continue to back nuclear sharing with the U.S., adding that it saw no reason to debate this aspect of NATO deterrence.
Though Ralf Stegner, vice chairman of the SPD, has said the following, "We don't think that the nuclear-sharing agreement is fit for the times anymore." (Wall Street Journal, 2-12-19).
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News
In Germany, a Cold War Deal to Host U.S. Nuclear Weapons Is Now in Question (The Wall Street Journal, 2-12-19)
Once again: The SPD calls for withdrawal of US nuclear bombs from Germany (RT, 2-14-19)