In Germany, Obama to Call For Fewer Nukes

Obama seeks to further reduce nuclear arms around the world.

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, shakes hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a news conference at the German Chancellery on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in Berlin. Obama will speak at the Brandenburg Gate later in the day.


In 2008, hundreds of thousands of Berliners watched Obama speak in Tiergarten Park.

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By speaking at the famous gate, which marked a key point on the Berlin Wall when it stood, Obama highlights what once had been a point of great division between the two nuclear-armed superpowers. President Ronald Reagan used the location in 1987 to call on Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, to "tear down" the wall separating Eastern and Western Berlin, and Obama's planned speech commemorates the 50-year anniversary of John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" address, also made at the gate.

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"It's easy to think that history is behind us, essentially - the wall is down, there's not a threat of global nuclear war; the threats that we do face are far more distant." said Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, according to The Washington Post.


Obama will call on the Senate to adopt the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the Los Angeles Times, though it's likely to be met with opposition even in the Democratically controlled body.

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The address comes at a time when global concerns over the nuclear capabilities of countries such as North Korea and Iran are mounting.


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