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Chirac Backs German Call for Revamp of NATO
Reuters

BRUSSELS - French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday endorsed a controversial call by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for a revamp of NATO, which the United States has rebuffed.
"Europe and the United States are real partners. So we need to dialogue and listen to each other more," Chirac told a NATO summit with President Bush, according to speaking notes released by Chirac's staff.

"We must also, as the German chancellor has underlined, continue to take account of the changes that have occurred on the European continent," Chirac said, referring to the end of the Cold War and the rise of an enlarged and increasingly integrated European Union.

Schroeder said in a speech delivered to a Munich security conference 10 days ago that NATO was "no longer the primary venue where transatlantic partners discuss and coordinate strategies" and suggested a high-level panel should recommend how it could be reformed.

Some analysts interpreted Schroeder's call as implying that the EU, rather than NATO, should be the main partner in future transatlantic cooperation.

Chirac too pointed to the EU's growing defense cooperation and said it was an asset, not a threat, to NATO.

"European defense is progressing. This development is an opportunity for our alliance, because a stronger, more united Europe, obviously means a stronger, more efficient Atlantic alliance," he said.

While NATO "is and will remain a fundamental element of our security," a briefing from the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe had given a timely reminder that "our alliance is first and foremost a military alliance," Chirac said.

U.S. officials continue to stress the centrality of NATO, which the United States founded and still dominates.

But symbolically, Bush is visiting the European Union as an institution for the first time on Tuesday as well as NATO.

A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters on Monday, quoted Bush as saying the United States "views NATO as the principle forum for transatlantic cooperation, transatlantic action and transatlantic discussion."

Chirac did not mention Schroeder's call for a panel of experts, which NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected at the time.

De Hoop Scheffer said NATO was working fine and did not need a panel of experts to analyze or advise it.