Germany should contribute to the cost of France’s nuclear arsenal as the threat of a nuclear war with Russia looms over Europe, Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview published today.

“Now that Putin’s accomplices are threatening a nuclear strike every day, one thing is clear to me: we also need nuclear deterrence at the European level,” Schäuble, a former finance minister and member of the German parliament for five decades, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

France has such weapons, he said, adding: “In our own interest, we Germans must make a financial contribution to the French nuclear force in return for a joint nuclear deterrence.”

Asked whether his proposal would give Berlin a reason to use nuclear weapons, the former conservative minister said France and Germany would have to reach an agreement as neighbors and NATO partners.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the most serious crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

France – one of three nuclear-armed NATO members, along with the United States and Britain – has about 300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

With information from: APA MPA, Reuters

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