Dispute raises doubts about nukes at air base United States
Frayed US relations with Turkey over its incursion in Syria raise a sensitive question rarely discussed in public: should the US remove the nuclear bombs it has long stored at a Turkish air base?
Under a long-standing policy, the US government does not publicly acknowledge the locations of nuclear weapons overseas. Still, it is almost an open secret that the US has as many as 50 B-61 bombs stored under heavy guard at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.
US President Donald Trump implicitly acknowledged the stockpile this week when asked by a reporter how confident he was of the bombs’ security. ‘‘We’re confident,’’ he said.
Turkey, a Nato ally, has reportedly hosted American nuclear weapons for 60 years.
The arrangement at Incirlik is part of Nato’s policy of linking Turkey and other member countries to the alliance’s aim of deterring war by having a relatively small number of nuclear weapons based in Europe.
There is no evidence that the weapons at Incirlik are at direct risk, but relations between Washington and Ankara are at a historic low, and the war in Syria has grown more complex and unpredictable. Incirlik is near the city of Adana, and about 240 kilometres from Syria by road.
Turkey defied repeated US warnings to not purchase a Russian air defence system that the White House has likened to a portal for Russian spying.
In July, the Pentagon kicked Turkey out of its F-35 fighter jet programme because Ankara refused to halt the purchase. This was a major blow to US-Turkey relations, and raised questions in Washington about whether Turkey was a reliable ally.
Eric Edelman, a former US ambassador to Turkey and senior Pentagon official, said he believed the nuclear weapons were safe and secure, and he saw a risk in removing them.
‘‘I’m not in favour of taking any actions that would potentially accelerate Turkey’s thinking about pursuing its own independent nuclear deterrent,’’ he said, noting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned this possibility as recently as September.
Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, who has followed the issue for many years, said a review of options for the US bombs at Incirlik was long overdue. He believed that the US Air Force, which is responsible for the bombs, had grown concerned about their security in recent years.
‘‘The air force is concerned about not only the standard physical perimeters – whether they are good enough – but also about the manpower on the base, whether they have enough to hold back an attack from someone,’’ Kristensen said.
The conflict in northern Syria had added a new layer of worry for American officials, he said. They were ‘‘afraid of the spillover’’ inside Turkey.
The bombs in Turkey are part of a network of roughly 150 US air-delivered nuclear weapons based in Europe. Kristensen says the other host countries are Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
Erdogan said yesterday he and Trump shared ‘‘love and respect’’, but he also left little doubt that he was offended by an October 9 letter from Trump telling him, ‘‘Don’t be a fool!’’.
Erdogan said Trump’s words were not compatible with ‘‘political and diplomatic courtesy’’ and would not be forgotten, and he would ‘‘do what’s necessary’’ about the letter ‘‘when the time comes’’.