Today (3 February) Federal Minister Guido Westerwelle met seven elder statesmen from Germany and the US.

Henry Kissinger, William Perry, George Shultz and Sam Nunn on the American side and Richard von Weizsäcker, Helmut Schmidt and Hans-Dietrich Genscher on the German side – together with Egon Bahr who could not attend today’s meeting – have launched an initiative for a world free of nuclear weapons and outlined the road leading there in joint declarations.

Federal Minister Westerwelle praised the eight politicians’ commitment and expressed his support for their initiative. He said that the aim had to be to move towards the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons through concrete disarmament steps, for example the conclusion of a follow-on agreement to START between the US and Russia.

The Minister went on to say that in this connection the German Government was seeking in close consultation with its allies and partners to bring about the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from Germany and had conducted initial talks on this.