Belgian Defense Minister Reveals Nuclear Base
Belgian Defence Minister Pieter De Crem was under fire Thursday for acknowledging the “nuclear capacity” of a military base, despite NATO rules requiring discretion on the subject.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Yves Leterme telephoned De Crem, defence minister since last month, to “rap him on the knuckles” after the gaffe, a Flemish daily reported.
The Flemish Socialist party SPA, which has previously opposed the presence of US nuclear missiles in Europe, immediately called for all nuclear arms to be removed from Belgian territory.
The row erupted during a visit on Wednesday by the defence minister to the Kleine-Brogel military base in the northeastern province of Limbourg, part of Belgium’s Dutch-speaking Flemish region.
De Crem, like his predecessors, had at first refused to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear missiles at the base, which is right next to a US army base