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France: France closer to rejoining Nato

01 October 2007

France has made a series of proposals aimed at a return to the military organization of Nato. The country had left the military branch of Nato in 1966 under general De Gaulle because it mistrusted the US nuclear guarantee for the defence of continental Europe. Since then France stayed only in the political organization of Nato. Now new president Sarkozy has sent a document to the alliance's political headquarters in which four ways of sharing information and strategic thinking between Nato and the EU common foreign and defence policy are mentioned. The EU high representative for foreign affairs should regularly brief the Nato Atlantic Council. The secretary general of Nato should be invited at the meetings of EU foreign ministers. Nato and EU bodies for arms procurement should have close working contacts. New procedures should facilitate exchange of information between Nato and EU crisis and disaster agencies.

In the eyes of the Paris correspondent of The Independent these ideas "seem merely technical but they represent almost a U-turn from previous French hostility towards EU-Nato links". Washington officials "are said to fear that M. Sarkozy is trying to build up EU defence policy as a cuckoo within the Nato nest, rather then a rival outside it." Earlier Sarkozy told the New York Times there were two French conditions for reintegration in Nato – a boosted EU military headquarters in Brussels and a guarantee for senior French posts inside Nato's top command structure, for instance that of the European Nato commander. A new French defence white paper is due in March next year.

The Independent, 10.10.07 (John Lichfield); Le Monde, 9.10.07 (Laurent Zecchini); AFP, 25.9.07;