AFP, Britain will not participate in a proposed autonomous EU military planning and command centre which will be separate from the NATO headquarters, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Wednesday.
“What we've said … is we do not judge that it's helpful in terms of improving military capabilities,” Hoon told BBC radio.
“We have made it quite clear that we see no benefit in having an operational planning capability that duplicates NATO or is separate from national headquarters.”
Four countries — Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg — agreed at a mini-summit in April controversial plans to build the centre in the Brussels suburb of Tervuren.
But the plans have sparked a fierce transatlantic row, which resurfaced last month after the US ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, warned they were a “significant” threat to the 19-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Washington's concerns had been fueled by an apparent softening of tone from its key European ally Britain over the plans.
But asked whether Britain would take part if such a European defence headquarters were built, Hoon ruled out any such a move.
“We would not participate because we can see no practical advantage to European capabilities as far as that is concerned,” he said, adding he believed “rather than duplicating existing capabilities we believe the extra effort, money, should be spent in improving the gaps in European military capabilites.”
