Is US' nuke-free world pledge sincere?

Media reports from the United States say the Barack Obama administration is conducting a "nuclear posture review", aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals and reassessing the importance of nuclear weapons in America's national security strategy. A "historic change" this review could consider is adopting a policy of no-first use of nuclear weapons. An issue related to the review is limiting the use of nuclear weapons to deter nuclear strikes - in other words, nuclear weapons should not be a deterrent to biological, chemical or conventional weapon attacks.

Recently, the Japanese foreign minister said Tokyo would request Washington to adopt a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons. The earlier Japanese government, too, had called for the destruction of nuclear weapons. It, however, had asked the US to be the first to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan.

In Europe, the German foreign minister has said his country, too, would like to contribute to nuclear disarmament by asking the US to remove all nuclear weapons from its installations in Germany, because they are a relic of the Cold War.