US nuclear weapons in Europe must be taken away: Hans Blix

Hans Blix, General Director of the IAEA and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq and Alexander Gabelic, chairman of the Swedish UN Association have written an article titled US Nuclear Weapons in Europe Must Be Taken Away, which was published in the Svenska Dagbladet recently.

The article says that since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, arms reduction process had made great progress. But after the 9/11 terror attack, the role of nuclear weapons was stressed in some doctrines and statements.

But this year, there appear some new rays on the issue as some American leaders proposed to the US foreign policy to take measures to reduce nuclear weapons since there is no cold war any more.
The Global Zero, an organization which proposed zero nuclear weapons demands the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Swedish Anna Lindh's initiative has given 60 concrete suggestions for the process.

The article says that US president Obama has promised during the election campaign that the US should take initiative to reduce nuclear weapons and he has kept his promise in his diplomatic visits to Prague, Cairo and London.

Russia and the US are negotiating on a new agreement on the maximum number of nuclear heads they should have. The US has said that it will not install the anti-ballistic missile system in eastern European countries. Russia supports this decision. If Russia and China both support such idea and even ratify the agreement on fully ban on new nuclear test, it will be easier for Obama to get it ratified in the Senate.
The article says one issue should be solved soon. That is the nuclear weapons in western European countries and those in western regions of Russia.

The article demands that the US should take those nuclear weapons in the European countries back to America and Russia should move its nuclear further to inland area. The US can and should begin the process by stopping cooperation with Germany and Belgium in installing nuclear warheads in their fighting planes.

The article finally says that today there is a new chance for arms reduction and Obama's initiative should get global support. Sweden has signed the Global Zero initiative.

"With a total of 1.4 trillion US dollars of global military spending annually, the money, instead, to large part, should have been used in improving the living standards of the people on this planet," concludes the article.

By Xuefei Chen, People's Daily Online, Stockholm.