US nuclear warheads from Turkey did not get into Romania, says minister Motoc

The minister of national defense, Mihnea Motoc, says that there was no discussion about any US nuclear warheads transfer from Turkey and that the media reports on the alleged movement of the warheads to Romania are pure speculations, according to Agerpres.

„What I can tell you is that there was no discussion neither at political level, nor at specialized level in this sense. There’s no thinking, no plan in this direction,” said Mihnea Motoc on Thursday at Buzau while attending the manifestation dedicated to the Second Army Centenary.

The minister also referred to the official position of the Ministry of External Affairs (MAE) on this subject. The MAE also rejected this claim.

The EurActiv.com news portal published on Thursday an information according to which the US has started the nuclear weapons transfer from Turkey to Romania because of the worsening relation between Washington and Ankara.

According to one of the quoted sources by EurActiv, the transfer raises several issues from technical and political point of view. „It’s not simple to move 20 warheads” said the sources anonymously. Another source said for the mentioned site that the US-Turkey relations have deteriorated so much as a result of the failed coupattempt from June so that Washington doesn’t trust Ankara anymore to host these weapons. The American weapons are in process of being transferred to the air base from Deveselu in Romania, says the source.