- BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- 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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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