More evidence today that the old world order is finally being reconfigured - the heart of "Old Europe" wants to undermine NATO. This will end up making the U.S. even more dominant, since these countries are not really serious about taking action; it's all spite and inferiority. They will invest less & less in their own military and America's willingness to protect them will surely diminish. It'll be interesting to see how "New Europe" responds.
The leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg ended a mini-summit in Brussels by announcing plans for the creation of a joint military planning system by next year, and a multinational headquarters for European military operations in which Nato is not involved. The four countries - all members of Nato - also intend to set up their own rapid reaction force. They also want to launch a European Security and Defence Union, which others would be encouraged to join. Hopes that Europe was ready to move closer to a common defence and foreign policy have been left in tatters by the Iraq war, which split the EU into pro- and anti-war camps. The mini-summit has been criticised for worsening the rift - and critics pointed out that it had excluded the EU's biggest military power, the UK.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the US saw no need for the proposed new EU military command. He also played down the significance of the summit agreement on defence. "Four of the nations of the (European) union have come together and created some sort of a plan to develop some sort of a headquarters," Mr Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "What we need is not more headquarters. What we need is more capability and fleshing out of the structure and the forces that are already there."
Posted by Alan at April 29, 2003 09:08 PM