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“These discussions are indeed happening,” he announced to the Berlin parliament.
“They also do not conflict with the existing nuclear-sharing arrangement with the United States.”
Germany is already under the protective umbrella of the US nuclear arsenal through the NATO alliance.
“Trump has consistently expressed his concerns or even outright disdain for NATO,” Zala remarked.
“With all the talk about acquiring Greenland, a territory belonging to a NATO member, it’s prompting members to consider what an alternative strategy might entail.”
The discussions show Germany is now turning to the UK and France, the two other nuclear-armed nations in NATO.
What that means could just be a change on paper – a pledge from the UK or France to respond with nuclear weapons if Germany is attacked.
“That response is implicit in the NATO agreement anyway, because an attack on one is meant to be an attack on all,” Zala said.
Option two is an arrangement where British or French nuclear weapons are kept on German soil.
This would likely be in the form of French bomber planes equipped with nuclear bombs, since Britain’s nuclear arms are all submarine-based.
A third option would be Germany developing their own nuclear weapons.
But that would put Germany in breach of several agreements it had previously agreed to, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“Germany would then have to start the process of gaining the material for nuclear weapons,” Zala said.
“It would need highly enriched uranium or plutonium. It would need a whole industry that it would have to set up that doesn’t currently have to support a nuclear weapons program.”
“I can’t envisage a scenario in which Germany is attacked with nuclear weapons, in which Britain and France don’t respond,” he said.
“It’s more about trying to signal strength.”
France currently has a strategic arsenal of about 290 nuclear warheads.
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