Agence France-Presse, France is preparing for a possible return to the integrated military command of NATO, but discussions remain at a preliminary stage and no decision has yet been taken, a senior defense official said September 25.
He was speaking after President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the clearest sign yet of French intentions, telling the New York Times of two conditions for reintegration — a boosted European Union defense body and a guarantee of senior French posts inside NATO’s top command structures.
“Without progress on these two prerequisites, there will be no reintegration. Once we make progress on these, we can talk about the opportuneness of reintegration,” Sarkozy said in an interview ahead of his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York.
“These issues have not yet been decided on,” the official said, indicating that detailed negotiations with both U.S. and British officials are now in the planning stages. A new white paper spelling out French defense thinking has also been commissioned by Sarkozy and is due in March.
“The central question is finding a proper coordination between the European Union — a political and economic organization whose military arm is the common security and defense policy — and NATO, which is a military organization with an ever-greater political profile,” the official said.
On the question of senior posts, these should include “divisional and headquarters command positions,” he said.
A founding member of NATO, France left the bloc’s integrated military command in 1966 when Charles de Gaulle decided to assert sovereign control over the armed forces.
Since the early 1990s, there has been a gradual rapprochement and France has taken part in NATO missions, but it still cultivates an awkward semi-autonomous position inside the organization.
Sarkozy’s initiative is a further sign of a reappraisal of French foreign policy since his accession in May, with a dramatic improvement of relations with the United States at its center.
Last month, Sarkozy told an annual meeting of French ambassadors that the nation wished to “resume its full place” at the heart of NATO, and Defense Minister Herve Morin two weeks ago linked the future of EU defense with French reintegration in the alliance.
“My belief is that European defense will only advance if we change our political behavior inside NATO. Too often we are the ones who bicker … as if to give the impression that we do not want NATO to change,” he said.
In his New York Times interview, Sarkozy said, “We have to stop presenting NATO as some kind of bogeyman. Regardless of NATO’s importance, Europe must be able to defend itself effectively and independently.
“Europe cannot be an economic power without ensuring its own security. So I would make progress on European defense a condition for moving into the integrated command, and I am asking our American friends to understand that,” he said.
Critics accuse Sarkozy of swinging uncritically into the U.S. camp, and warn that French influence in the world will be diminished if it loses an independent voice.
