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As German Social Democrats began to debate whether their country should continue to maintain US nuclear weapons. USA On its territory, some US officials turned their attention to neighboring Poland. And this unexpected turn infuriated Russia’s eastern neighbor, Russia.
According to Euractiv, in early May, German Social Democratic leader Rolf Mutzenich demanded that the country “should no longer have US nuclear weapons in the future.” The statement quickly sparked a wave of discontent for the Christian Democrat and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, the party’s coalition partners.
This idea of R. Mutzenich was quickly supported by other leaders of his party, who will try to exploit the rhetoric of pacifism before the next elections. Social Democrats are also opposed to the acquisition of American-made F-18 fighter jets capable of flying nuclear warheads, the purchase of which is one of the prerequisites for Germany to maintain its existing nuclear arsenal after 2030.
The United States ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, accused the country’s authorities of not contributing to NATO’s common nuclear defense policy and reminded Berlin that it had promised to contribute to the capabilities of the joint defense bloc.
“If Germany wants to be a true fighter for peace, now is the time for solidarity,” the US embassy said in a statement. “Will Germany choose to be responsible, or will she just relax and enjoy the economic benefits of security at the expense of her other allies?”
This call was also in 2016. A reminder of the Warsaw Declaration, in which NATO leaders reaffirmed that “the fundamental objective of NATO’s nuclear capabilities is to preserve peace and avoid possible coercion.”
According to German security experts, the withdrawal of the country’s nuclear weapons from the region would begin a kind of ripple effect.
“Germany can abandon the nuclear shield. This would force Poland to reconsider its position on nuclear defense. And this would encourage Russia to intensify its attempts to expand its influence in Central and Eastern Europe. The result would be more conflicts in the East and a weaker Europe as a whole, “wrote Ulrich Speck, spokesman for the German Marshall Fund.
Poland as a possible alternative?
The US Ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, independently discussed and suggested that if Germany were to try “to reduce its nuclear potential and weaken NATO,” “Poland, which is currently making a sufficient contribution, understands all possible risks and is on the eastern edge of NATO “, it could assume an important security role. .
Although Warsaw has not yet formally expressed such a wish, possible options for such a scenario have been under discussion since 2015. in December, at the initiative of the then Deputy Minister of Defense and the current Ambassador of Poland to NATO, Tomasz Szatkowski.
According to Steven Pifer, a former US diplomat in Poland, such a transfer of US nuclear weapons to Poland could be “costly, militarily reckless, as the weapons could become the target of a sudden attack, clearly provocative and capable of disrupting NATO unity “
To implement such a solution, all the necessary infrastructure in Poland must be built to ensure the safety of the protected facility and special bunkers must be installed in case of emergency.
“It just caught our eye then. One of the things these speeches offer is the possibility that Mutzenich will continue to demand the removal of the bombs from Germany, because, quoting Ambassador Mosbacher, he could say, ‘We can take them to Poland,’ he warned. Pifer.
Russia was not fascinated by languages
Mr. Mosbacher’s comments about the possibility of transferring nuclear weapons from the United States to Poland were quickly outraged by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Maria Zakharova, a ministry spokeswoman, said Mosbacher wanted “to talk about the possibility of carrying nuclear weapons and all the necessary infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders.” According to Zakharova, this “would violate one of the most important Framework Law on Russia-NATO Relations”.
“We hope that Washington and Warsaw understand the dangers of such behavior,” he said, adding that such statements exacerbated the already poor Russia-NATO relationship and threatened Europe’s overall security.
Instead, Russia proposes to strengthen security “by transporting American nuclear warheads back to American territory.”
