BERLIN, August 30. /TASS/. American nuclear weapons based in Germany should be withdrawn from the country, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview with German Press Agency (DPA) during a visit to New York. This, he said, must become the result of the new dialogue on disarmament.

Leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party Martin Schulz earlier argued in favor of it.

"I am confident that it is necessary to talk again about arms control and disarmament. That’s why I think that Martin Schulz’s statements that the issue should concern withdrawing weapons from our country are right," Gabriel affirmed.

According to the DPA news service, unverified data suggest that up to 20 American nuclear warheads have been located at an airfield near the municipality of Buchel, in the Rhineland-Palatinate state, since the Cold War.

In March 2010, through a majority vote, Bundestag members issued a mandate for the government to conduct talks with Washington on withdrawing American nuclear weapons from Germany. However, the then-German cabinet of ministers declared that it would not embark on any unilateral steps without coordinating with Berlin’s NATO partners.