Germany's Schaeuble calls on Berlin to help fund French nukes - report
BERLIN,
July 23 (Reuters) - Germany should contribute towards the costs of
France's nuclear arsenal as the threat of nuclear war with Russia looms
over Europe, German political veteran Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an
interview published on Saturday.
"Now
that Putin's accomplices are threatening a nuclear strike every day,
one thing is clear to me: we need nuclear deterrence at the European
level as well," Schaeuble, a former finance minister who has served as a
member of the German parliament for five decades, told the Welt am
Sonntag newspaper.
France
has such weapons, he said, adding: "In our own interest, we Germans
must make a financial contribution to the French nuclear force in return
for a joint nuclear deterrent.
The
conservative, who has long been a passionate supporter of European
integration, became a European household name during the 2012 eurozone
debt crisis, when fans hailed him as a guardian of fiscal rectitude even
as opponents accused him of imposing damaging austerity on Greece and
other indebted countries.
Asked
whether his proposal would give Berlin a say on using nuclear weapons,
the former conservative minister said France and Germany would have to
come to an agreement as neighbours and NATO partners.
Russia's
invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations
between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when
many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
France
- one of three NATO members with nuclear weapons, alongside the United
States and Britain - has around 300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal,
according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI).
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/BOCKJRWN7BNB5AHJG5GYCBSOW4.jpg)