a new round in the arms race. the protests in germany were the largest since the end of world war two. in the end instead of a strike there was a handshake in october one thousand nine hundred six u.s. president ronald reagan and soviet leader mikhail gorbachev met in reykjavik to sign a treaty that would eliminate all u.s. and soviet land based short range an intermediate range missiles. this was the so-called i.n.f. treaty. by nine hundred ninety one the two sides had eliminated a total of nearly two thousand seven hundred missiles. some of the cruise missiles that were eliminated under terms of the agreement had been stored at facilities like this in germany. christensen says the treaty was unprecedented in its scope. it was the first class or agreement that simply eradicated an entire class of missiles what was also important was that it had
a lot of other forces in this part of. europe that they can use to target anything they want in europe anyway so it doesn t really make militarily sense here. at the same time russia says nato is cheating on the i n f agreement by deploying missile defense systems in romania and poland. u.s. navy ships outfitted with anti missile interceptors are on duty in the mediterranean sea. washington says all of these systems are intended to protect against missile attacks from iran. human head of was issue with the russians say that the u.s. missile defense systems in eastern europe probably relation of the i.n.f. treaty experts disagree on whether that s true but in any case the treaty is in a pretty sorry state right now in kind them. that well their mutual accusations from the united states and russia about the other side violating the treaty the
weapons. and. there is a loophole that might allow for that. and went to sleep in the hot. in one thousand nine hundred nine by the new west german chancellor simon nonproliferation treaty. but he did so with the caveat that a future european political alliance might be allowed to consider the development of nuclear weapons because. if friends were in that alliance it might be possible at least in theory for germany to become a nuclear power. at least with as. i don t want to completely rule out the possibility that i do for european defense union more to beautify elop to along the lines where you proposed. that organization mart also have nuclear power and thanks largely to french nuclear capability. francis you fish god.
say that this could cause political friction. this past feed it is that what s tricky about the plan is that if the u.s. were to deploy its own cruise missiles on its own submarines it would circumvent getting nato approval and. that is precisely because the u.s. knows full well that such a one sided move would have set the other nato partners. tiamat the always. looked out for me and it causes or i m quite concerned. that u.s. policy may end up in the hands of those who believe that russian violations of the i.n.f. treaty suite mean washington they must now also develop new intermediate range nuclear weapons these that would be the depth of the agreement and if. they hadn t thought so if the i.n.f. treaty collapses you will have no treaty or system governing medium range
ballistic missiles and nuclear missiles and cruise missiles in europe these weapons are specifically a danger and risk to european to your to europeans because the. range holds european cities and capitals so while this treaty is between the u.s. and russia it really affects europeans. president frequent verbal attacks on nato have raised grave concerns some experts are no longer certain that the us nuclear umbrella is still committed to protecting europe or if america would come first in a crisis. here a nato delegation is inspecting a french nuclear submarine. could alliance members strengthen nuclear policy cooperation so as to reduce their reliance on the us. would it be possible for europe to develop its own nuclear