WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States continues to violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s (NPT) prohibition of sharing nuclear weapons with non-nuclear weapons states by stationing nuclear bombs in five NATO member nations, New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Alice Slater told Sputnik.
The United States continues to deploy nuclear weapons in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and The Netherlands, Slater pointed out on Friday.
"[The Obama administration is] now actually upgrading the weapons and deliveries systems at bases in those country hosting the illegal US instruments of death and destruction on their soil, even though those five non-nuclear weapons states signed the NPT and promised never to acquire nuclear weapons," Slater explained.
"It is not surprising that Russia would be rattling its nuclear sabers in response," she added.
"The recent news that the United States is planning to station 20 new nuclear bombs in Germany, each one 80 times more destructive power than the bomb used in Hiroshima, gives cause for despair for global peace activists who have been working for nuclear disarmament and an end to war," Slater said.
She explained that in 2000 then US President Bill Clinton rejected a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin that to start nuclear disarmament.
"Putin had made an offer to Clinton, in 2000, that the United States and Russia should cut their arsenals of 19,000 nuclear weapons to 1,000 warheads each… and negotiate a treaty to eliminate all nuclear weapons on the planet," Slater said.
Putin’s condition, she recalled, was that the Unite States refrain from building missile bases in Eastern Europe.
However, "Clinton refused and Putin withdrew the offer," she noted.
Slater also said the US media remained dominated by the military-industrial complex. making it very difficult for Americans to learn the truth.
"We need all the help we can get… to get the truth out. Perhaps the Pope can talk some sense into the world and help the great majority of the world’s people to find the courage and enthusiasm to empower democracy and give peace a chance," Slater concluded.
At present, there are an estimated 16,300 nuclear bombs in the world.
