NATO Official Warns: EU Force ‘Duplicative, Unwise’
Local Editor
A top NATO official warned Friday the European Union army concept endorsed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be “duplicative” and “unwise.”
In an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum, UK Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, pointed to NATO’s strength as a single set of forces, with a unique command and control network and planning process.
“It’s not rhetoric based. It’s real planning based on real data,” Peach said. “And therefore, why would you wish to duplicate or replicate the strengths of an existing strong alliance.”
The comments came after Merkel on Tuesday floated the idea of a “real, true European army,” to compliment NATO during a speech before a session of the European Parliament. Those remarks virtually echoed Macron’s call a week earlier, in an interview with Europe 1.
For his part, US President Donald Trump called Macron’s comments “very insulting” in a spate of Twitter posts as the two held a meeting last week in Paris.
Earlier on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg alluded the proposal of a European force at a NATO conference in Berlin, saying he welcomed, “increased EU efforts on defense, because I think that can actually help to strengthen NATO.”
European allied militaries can act without the US so long as they use NATO command structures, Stoltenberg said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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