Frankrijk en Duitsland willen versterking band EU-NAVO (en)
"Real co-operation" between the European Union and NATO, as well as a closer EU – US coordination on security issues and improved relations with Russia are needed in order for Europe to better face "current challenges," the leaders of France and Germany have said.
In order to respond to the "demands of the future," some areas – such as EU – NATO co-operation – are key, French President Nicolas Sarkozy i and German Chancellor Angela Merkel i wrote in a joint column entitled "Security – our common mission" and posted on the website of French newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday evening (3 February).
"To our great regret, the ‘strategic partnership' between NATO and the EU is not living up to our expectations, due to disagreements which persist between certain nations," the leaders of the EU's two biggest nations wrote.
"We think that this must change. We must go toward a real cooperation, founded on a necessary complementarity," they went on.
The two leaders will meet in Munich on Saturday (7 February) for an annual Security conference, before hosting this year's NATO summit on 3 and 4 April in Strasbourg and Kehl, which will also mark the Alliance's 60th anniversary.
They write they expect this summit to "launch the work on a new ‘strategic concept'" and "give new orientations in order to transform the Alliance in a credible manner."
However, the paper does not give any indications on a possible French return to the organisation's military structures, something Mr Sarkozy had hinted at during last year's NATO summit.
France has been out of NATO's military command since 1966, when the then-President Charles de Gaulle withdrew the French forces protesting against what he saw as US dominance emerging within the organisation.
Stronger partnership with both the US and Russia
Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy also stressed the need for Europe to have strong partnership with both the US and Russia.
"For Germany and for France, in order to face the current challenges, Europe needs the US just like the US needs a strong European partner," they wrote.
"To face the risks of the 21st century, it is necessary to strengthen the transatlantic security and defence partnership, and to adapt it to the new challenges. This implies analysing the situations together, taking common decisions and implementing them together in the same spirit of partnership," they went on.
As for Russia, the French and German leaders acknowledge that last summer's crisis in Georgia marked a "fracture" and created a "trust problem" in the relations with Moscow.
However, "Russia remains our neighbour and a very important partner. We have not gone back to the cold war era."
"We intend to re-establish and develop fruitful relations based on trust," Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy wrote.
German troops in France
Meanwhile, Germany and France gave a clear sign of their deepening military ties on Monday, as it was announced German troops would be stationed in France for the first time since World War Two.
The German soldiers would be stationed somewhere in the north eastern region of Alsace-Lorraine – over which France and Germany have fought several times in the past.
Berlin and Paris are still negotiating on the exact city where the 450 to 800 soldiers would be stationed, Reuters reports.
"The question of whether this will happen has basically been decided, it's now about the 'how' and 'how many' and 'where'," a diplomatic source told the news agency.
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