EurActiv.com said that according to a recent report by the Simson Center, some 50 USA tactical nuclear weapons have been stationed at Incirlik, around 100 km from the Syrian border, since the Cold War.
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The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest has “strongly denied” the reported information about a transfer of USA nuclear weapons to Romania from Turkey, EurActiv said. In a statement to accompany the report’s publication, the think tank stressed that a protracted civil conflict in Turkey would make the fate of the weapons uncertain, referencing the attempted coup in Turkey on July 15.
“From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey”, co-author Laicie Heeley told AFP earlier this week.
According to one of the two anonymous sources, “the US-Turkey relations had deteriorated so much following the coup that Washington no longer trusted Ankara to host the weapons”.
According to that source, the US were transferring nuclear weapons to Deveselu air base in Romania. Deveselu hosts the antimissile defense system Aegis Ashore, which became operational in mid-May this year. “These Allies will ensure that all components of NATO’s nuclear deterrent remain safe, secure, and effective”.
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“The Foreign Affairs Ministry firmly rejects these pieces of information”, the official Agerpres news agency reported the ministry as saying.
