Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says the US nuclear umbrella in Europe will remain in place because Washington does not want to risk the proliferation of nuclear weapons. His comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron recently suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrent to cover European allies.
“If we are having this discussion in all sincerity, the US will never give up this nuclear umbrella, because giving it up will encourage the development and spread of nuclear weapons in Europe and other countries,” the Lithuanian prime minister said in an interview with BNS.
“And why did the NATO nuclear umbrella come about in the first place? Let’s recall that many years ago both Sweden and Germany had a so-called threshold capability, where they could build a nuclear bomb quickly if needed. Then the US said: because they are a great power, in order not to have those nuclear bombs anywhere, we will give guarantees, we will cover you all,” he added.
French President Macron said recently that Paris was considering extending the country’s nuclear deterrent to include its European partners.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda later thanked Macron for this proposal and was assured that an adviser to the French resident would come to Lithuania to provide more details on this idea.
PM Paluckas said the debate about putting Europe under the French nuclear umbrella must “not diminish the confidence in the umbrella that we have”.
“Today, Europe is, and I stress it again, protected by the NATO nuclear umbrella. NATO’s nuclear umbrella is based on the nuclear arsenal of the United States of America and Great Britain. This is a model that works,” said Paluckas.
Last week, Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said that if the allies “propose realistic plans for the deployment of nuclear weapons or their components in Lithuania”, Vilnius will consider it, even though this may require amending the constitution. It currently prohibits the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in Lithuania.
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