FRANCE WANTS TO REJOIN NATO MILITARY WING AFTER 40 YEARS
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.06.2008 16:29 GMT+04:00
France wants to return to NATO’s integrated military command structure
for the first time in 40 years.
The new military and security strategy, which President Nicolas
Sarkozy will present in public after months of internal debate,
calls for a smaller, more mobile army, with savings spent on better
intelligence and modern equipment.
Building a credible European defense is a French priority, the strategy
says. But French plans were damaged by the Irish rejection of a new
set of rules for the 27-nation European Union that would have made
it easier for members to cooperate on defense.
In fact, publication of the French white paper was delayed until
after the Irish referendum last week on the so-called Lisbon Treaty,
to avoid providing the neutral Irish with another reason to vote no.
The new defense doctrine, the White Book, seeks to prepare France and
Europe for a post-Soviet world in which conventional military threats
are downgraded compared to a multitude of complex, globalized risks,
ranging from epidemics to terrorism and cyberwar.
Jobs in defense will be cut, with estimates of 54,000 over the next
six to seven years out of a current total of some 330,000. Most of
the reductions will come from the standing army and its noncombatant
support services, with the intention of reversing the current 60-40
ratio of support to combat personnel.
The cuts are politically sensitive, given local and political
interests, but a reduction in personnel is the only way to provide
more financial room for maneuver for acquisitions and training
intended to create a more modern army, where threats are more likely
to come from terrorism, cyberwarfare or missile attack than from a
traditional invasion.
The plan foresees raising the budget for military acquisition, for
example, by more than 16 percent, without immediately raising defense
spending, and spending twice as much on space, with the intention of
creating a space-based early warning system against missile attack. A
decision to build another aircraft carrier will be postponed and
spending on intelligence, which is to be reorganized under a single
chief, is expected to double.
France’s defense budget is about $57.3 billion a year.
The plan foresees an increase of one percent over the rate of inflation
beginning in 2012. France currently spends about 2.3 percent of its
gross domestic product on defense; that will drop to 2 percent over
the next 12 years.
The plan also sets a new requirement of at least 30,000 French soldiers
able to be deployed in combat within six months, with 5,000 soldiers on
permanent operational alert, part of the larger goal of helping to make
a European defense capability both credible and functional. Europe’s
goal, far from being realized, is to have 60,000 soldiers able to be
deployed, the IHT reports.
"France is an independent ally and free partner. I uphold the
principles proclaimed by General de Gaulle.
France will reserve the right to decide on its participation in
military operations. Our military contingent will never be under NATO
command in time of peace," the French President stated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
