WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Tuesday welcomed France's rejoining NATO's integrated military command.
"We welcome the announcement," Gordon Johndroe, White House national security spokesman, said.
Earlier French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed France's plans to return to NATO's integrated command, which it left in 1966 when Charles de Gaulle rejected US dominance of the alliance. France was a founding member of NATO.
Stephen Hadley, President George W. Bush's national security adviser, said in April at the NATO summit in Bucharest that Bush was in favor of France coming back into the integrated command, and generally favored European partners boosting capacities for EU and NATO missions.
Hadley "made it very clear that the United States wants a strong partner in Europe, wants a strong EU partner, and that involves both more military capability for those countries, but also partnering NATO's military capability with EU civilian and political capabilities," Johndroe added.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
