Global Security Newswire

A policy document prepared by Germany's new governing coalition calls for the United States to withdraw its nuclear weapons from its European ally, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, April 13).

The coalition, which includes Chancellor Angela Merkel's right-of-center Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats, said in their new common program that Germany would back U.S. President Barack Obama's global disarmament efforts (see GSN, Sept. 23).

"We will ask the (Atlantic) Alliance and our American allies to withdraw American nuclear weapons from Germany," said the document.

Between 10 and 20 U.S. nuclear weapons are thought to be located underground in Buchel, in southwest Germany. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States removed most of its nuclear arms from Europe, though there are still some nuclear gravity bombs scattered across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey (see GSN, Oct. 16).

Approximately 130 nuclear weapons were withdrawn in 2004 from the German Ramstein air base in Rhineland-Palatinate (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, Oct. 22).