TAORMINA : Redesigning NATO
U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is slated to brief his North Atlantic Treaty Organization colleagues on President Bush’s recent nuclear disarmament initiative and the response by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev at a meeting in the Sicilian resort Thursday and Friday.
The NATO defense ministers also plan to discuss the future of the remaining nuclear weapons in Europe, specifically those based in Britain and Germany.
Reports from Brussels have suggested that the United States will propose a unilateral withdrawal of half the current nuclear arsenal in Europe, but the Pentagon insists that Washington will retain some nuclear weapons there as a deterrent and a shield for the estimated 150,000 U.S. troops expected to remain on the continent after the current drawdown of U.S. forces is completed two years from now.
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