BERLIN, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- France's President Nicholas Sarkozy has offered Germany to join the French nuclear weapons program, according to a media report.
At a bilateral meeting in Meseberg, Germany, last Monday, Sarkozy suggested that Germany built more nuclear power plants to ensure a carbon dioxide-low energy mix; he then said he had "another idea," German news magazine Der Spiegel writes in its latest issue, which hit stands Monday.
Sarkozy, noting that the French nuclear weapons shield also protected Germany, proposed that Berlin cooperate with France in its nuclear weapons program.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were "speechless," Der Spiegel writes. Steinmeier then politely refused, saying that Germany had no ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons.
The article also notes a general unease in Berlin with Sarkozy's unorthodox diplomatic initiatives and a gradual worsening of the traditionally strong French-German relations.
"Sarkozy bewilders Berlin every week anew," the magazine writes. "The plan to sit out the newcomer's initial rage has not come together."
