The European Union is considering the creation of a nuclear weapons program that would absorb France's arsenal to protect the 28-member bloc amid concerns that President Donald Trump will withdraw American support from Brussels.
The unprecedented proposal would only be enacted if the EU decides it can no longer rely on protection from the United States, the New York Times reported Monday.
France, which will become the only EU member-state with its own nuclear weapons following the departure of Britain, would repurpose its arsenal to protect the rest of western Europe under the plan.
Jana Puglierin, programming chief for the German Council on Foreign Relations, told the Times that some senior European officials had "for sure triggered a public debate about this, taking place in newspapers and journals, radio interviews, and TV documentaries."
"That in itself is remarkable. I am indeed very astonished that we discuss this at all," Puglierin added.
Though proponents of a military plan to boost the continent's nuclear weapons arsenal remain in the minority, top European officials have floated the idea of a so-called "Eurodeterrent" since the election of Trump.
Poland's former prime minister Jaroslaw Zackynski urged the EU to establish an autonomous nuclear program in February. Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker and foreign policy spokesman for Germany's ruling party, publicly raised the idea soon after Trump's election in November.
"My idea is to build on the existing weapons in Great Britain and France," Kiesewetter told a German news outlet, acknowledging that Britain's impending Brexit plans would likely prevent its involvement.
He said the program would counter U.S. presence in western Europe.
The United States currently maintains nuclear warheads in Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands as a defense assurance to European allies, but officials in Brussels have become increasingly discontented by the uncertainty of American-Russian relations.