Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
9/12/2014
The NATO Wales Summit ended late last week with no change to the alliance’s nuclear posture. Deep within the summit declaration was language mirroring previous statements in NATO’s 2012 Deterrence and Defense Posture Review and 2010 Strategic Concept indicating that the alliance will remain nuclear as long as nuclear weapons exist. “The strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance, particularly those of the United States, are the supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies,” the declaration reads. “The independent strategic nuclear forces of the United Kingdom and France have a deterrent role of their own and contribute to the overall deterrence and security of the Alliance. The circumstances in which any use of nuclear weapons might have to be contemplated are extremely remote.”
The declaration makes no mention of the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons housed on the soil of allied countries, which some experts have suggested reflects the decreased likelihood of using the tactical nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip in future arms control negotiations with Russia. “We continue to aspire to a cooperative, constructive relationship with Russia, including reciprocal confidence building and transparency measures and increased mutual understanding of NATO’s and Russia’s non-strategic nuclear force postures in Europe, based on our common security concerns and interests, in a Europe where each country freely chooses its future,” the declaration says. “We regret that the conditions for that relationship do not currently exist.”
Despite an exceedingly dim outlook on arms control talks involving Russia, NATO said that arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation remain important to the alliance’s security objectives and called on Russia to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. “Both the success and failure of these efforts can have a direct impact on the threat environment of NATO,” the declaration says. “In this context, it is of paramount importance that disarmament and non-proliferation commitments under existing treaties are honoured, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which is a crucial element of Euro-Atlantic security. In that regard, Allies call on Russia to preserve the viability of the INF Treaty through ensuring full and verifiable compliance.”
