PRESS RELEASE

4 November 1999

Tactical Nuclear Weapons to be Withdrawn from Europe?

BASIC welcomes reports from Agence France Presse which state that the US has agreed to withdraw all remaining tactical nuclear weapons from Europe. According to AFP, this decision will be announced during the NATO December ministerial meetings in Brussels.

Daniel Plesch, Director of BASIC said, "If true, the creation of a de facto nuclear weapon free zone from the River Rhine on the French border to the River Bug on the Russian border can only be a positive contribution to European security."

However, the US administration will have to fulfill several key conditions if this withdrawal is to be significant:

• External verification by US NATO allies and Russia is essential. In light of recent reports that US has habitually deployed nuclear weapons around the world without even informing host countries, intrusive verification arrangements are essential to credibly confirm the departure of all remaining weapons. Alongside host nation representatives, NATO should act in the spirit of the NATO-Russia Founding Act to invite Russian observers to witness the withdrawals.

• Withdrawal should be completed before President Clinton leaves office, to ensure that the incoming administration could not simply cancel this policy.

• Nuclear storage facilities on US bases in Europe should be dismantled as part of the withdrawal process. Otherwise, redeployment could be easily accomplished from the US to Europe in a matter of hours, most likely undetected.

"It is fitting that the NATO should choose the tenth anniversary of the fall of communism to remove this nuclear relic of the Cold War from Europe," said Martin Butcher, Senior Visiting Fellow at BASIC.

Read detailed information on US nuclear weapons in Europe, and the bases on which they are deployed.

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