France

Countdown for return to Nato military command begins

Article published on the 2009-03-11 Latest update 2009-03-12 09:07 TU

French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a defence conference, Paris, 11th March 2009
Photo: REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced his country's return to the military command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) at a defence seminar in Paris on Wednesday. Former President Charles de Gaulle decided to pull out of the alliance in 1966, saying membership kept France from pursuing its own policies.

"A rapprochement with Nato will strengthen our national independence," said Sarkozy in an address to a seminar at the Strategic Research Foundation of the Ecole Militaire (French Military Academy).

"We have an Alliance that is not European enough, and European defence which is not making progress as we would like," he said.

"We have no decision-making military post. We don't have our say when the Allies define their objectives and the military means for operations in which we take part."

“It's France's own fault because it excluded itself," he added.

France was one of the founding members of the Brussel-sbased military alliance in 1949, but former President Charles de Gaulle pulled out in 1966, due to differences in strategy.

France's return to full participation will be subject to a vote of confidence in the National Assembly next week, where Sarkozy's UMP party has a solid majority.

Defence Minister Hervé Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have both strongly supported the move.

"Our determination to be independent remains, and our fully participating in the Alliance poses no threat to our freedom of choice,” said Kouchner.

The leader of the opposition Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, has a different point of view.

"There is no need to rush, no fundamental reason, unless 'Atlanticism’ has become an ideology," she said.

François Bayrou, leader of the opposition centrist party, Modem, said that by staying out of the Nato military command structure, France "has a certain freedom and takes its own responsibility for that."

The French public is relatively divided over the issue. An Ifop poll had 58 per cent of respondents in favour of France resuming a role in Nato’s command structure, with 52 per cent against.

Since 1995, when Gaullist Jacques Chirac became president of France, thousands of French soldiers have fought under the Nato flag, in Bosnia, Kosovo and in Afghanistan. With France’s return to the Nato command, the number of French troops is expected to rise from 110 to 1,000 over a period of several years.