France will take a decision by the end of this year on returning to NATO’s military structures, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said at a NATO summit in Bucharest on Thursday (3 April).
“At the end of the French presidency [of the EU] the moment will have come to conclude this process and to take the necessary decisions for France to take its full place in NATO structures,” Mr Sarkozy was reported as saying by The Guardian.
France left NATO’s military command in 1966, when the then president Charles de Gaulle withdrew the French forces protesting against what he saw as ever growing US dominance within the organisation.
But on Thursday, Mr Sarkozy said that the door was now open for France to have a “strong renewal of its relations with NATO.”
The French president also confirmed his country would send 700 soldiers to Afghanistan to strengthen NATO troops on the ground.
France could reintegrate into NATO’s military command during the summit meeting of the organisation next year. The meeting will mark the 60th anniversary of the Alliance and is to be jointly hosted by Strasbourg in France and Kehl in Germany.
