Nuclear Sharing

Nuclear Sharing is a child of NATO. When the countries were negotiating the NPT, NATO was making secret nuclear weapons sharing agreements whereby the United States provided nuclear weapons to be deployed by, and stored in, other NATO states.

• This means that the NATO members would without the nuclear weapons of thier own make the use of Nuclear Weapons of NATO. The participative countries take common decisions on nuclear weapons policy, maintain technical equipment required for the use of nuclear weapons (including warplanes capable of delivering them), and store nuclear weapons on their territory.
• Accordingly, the countries such as Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey etc. have hosted and still said to be hosting U.S. nuclear weapons as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing policy.

Canada hosted weapons until 1984, Greece till 2001.  Till 1992, United Kingdom also received U.S. tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear artillery and Lance missiles.  In peace time, the nuclear weapons stored in non-nuclear countries are guarded by U.S. soldiers; the codes required for detonating them are under American control. In case of war, the weapons are to be mounted on the participating countries’ warplanes. The weapons are under custody and control of USAF Munitions Support Squadrons co-located on NATO main operating bases who work together with the host nation forces.

The arguments of those who oppose such agreement say that the sharing agreement is a clear violation of the Articles I and II of NPT. A counter-argument is that the U.S. controlled the weapons in storage within the NATO states, and that no transfer of the weapons or control over them was intended “unless and until a decision were made to go to war, at which the treaty would no longer be controlling”, so there is no breach of the NPT.