© REUTERS/ Kevin LamarqueUS Marine Osprey sends up a big wash of rain as as it lands near the Bavarian town of Kruen, Germany, June 8, 2015
Germany, Europe's most industrialized and populous country, famed for its technological achievements, is prohibited from acquiring its own nuclear weapons. It renounced the nuclear option in the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968.
However, it is among the nations with the dubious distinction of hosting US nuclear weapons, along with Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
The removal of the US nuclear warheads from Germany is a long-term aim of the country's government. However, the weapons remain in place.
Germany has 3,396 metric tons of gold: its vast reserves rank second worldwide. However, 45% of its gold, worth roughly $635 billion, is kept at the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Comment: That's assuming the Fed actually has the gold and that it doesn't simply exist 'on paper'...
Last year, Berlin announced that it wouldn't repatriate its gold reserves from the US; instead the Bundesbank issued an official statement underscoring its "trust" in its American partners.
Comment: Right. More like coercion. The U.S. doesn't get what it wants by inspiring trust; it uses fear and threats to keep its vassals in line.
According to Bloomberg, Germany gave up after repatriating just 5 metric tons of gold, though earlier it was told that it would get all the German gold back by 2020.
Russian Colonel General Leonid Ivashov has therefore explained why Berlin is so dependent on the US and is set to remain in its tenacious arms.
"The US is cautious that by acquiring its own nuclear weapons, Germany would become militarily and politically independent. Such attempts have been undertaken by then-chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schröder," he told Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week), a television program on the Russian TV channel Rossiya-1.
"Germany, France and Belgium attempted to create their own militarily-political block, but those attempts have been suppressed by the Americans," he added.
Instead, Ivashov said, the US is sending more weapons and servicemen to the country.
"The Americans fear ending up alone at the end of the day. Thus, they are trying to tie up Europe, weakening it through Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions. They flood it with arms, troops and military equipment in order to stop its efforts to break free from America's grip."
Nice read, albeit. I am sure more is going on, Hollande and Merkel want to get a EU goverment set up and running, i am not sure where the EU is going too, but at the moment they didn't make friends with Russia, and their not really making any friends with Greece, or Italy and Spain. I can understand why the United States want to keep a tight leash, but to me it seems eventually, everything is going to burst. You can't have this many *Super Powers* on this small planet. Its going to clash at one point.