Vol. 73/No. 14      April 13, 2009

Since 1966 the French capitalist rulers have opposed full integration in NATO in order to maintain independence from their imperialist rivals, in particular Washington.

The Sarkozy administration says the plan will enhance Paris’s ability to defend its national interests. “We are in favor of making NATO more European,” said Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. With Paris back in the command structure, “The Europeans will find it easier to lead foreign operations without the backing or involvement of the Americans,” he said.

Several hundred French military officers will take NATO positions. Paris will also get two important commands, according to news reports—the Allied Command Transformation project in Virginia and the regional headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, which is in charge of NATO’s rapid response force.

U.S. president Barack Obama issued a statement March 21 praising Sarkozy’s decision. “I enthusiastically welcome the decision made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to fully reintegrate France into the NATO Alliance,” he said.

Sarkozy’s announcement drew sharp criticism from his opponents in the French government who say that fully rejoining the NATO command will compromise France’s “independence.” Clotilde Valter, the French Socialist Party’s national secretary for defense, concluded in a March 21 issue of the party’s magazine L’Hebdo des Socialistes (Socialists’ Weekly): “With this hasty decision, taken at a bad time without debate or counterargument, Nicolas Sarkozy sacrifices the interests of France and the French.”

Despite opposition the Sarkozy administration won a no-confidence vote in parliament March 17 by 329 to 238.

Many U.S. and NATO-led imperialist wars have included the participation of Paris, including Bosnia, Kosova, and Afghanistan, where today there are some 2,000 French troops. Paris has retained its seat in the North Atlantic Council and is currently the fourth largest contributor of troops to NATO.

However Paris has sought to limit U.S. imperialism’s expansion where the interests of the French and U.S. rulers are in direct conflict. At the time of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the French government launched a campaign against Washington’s war, masked in a plea for diplomacy. French companies had profited handsomely from the UN sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s. With the U.S.-led overthrow of the Baghdad regime, billions in loan and investment deals between the Hussein government and French firms and banks were cut off.
 
 
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