ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 1996 TAG: 9606040053 SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO DATELINE: BERLIN SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
NATO foreign ministers, smoothing over years of bickering between the United States and France, agreed Monday to restructure Washington's oldest and most successful alliance by turning over to European members greater responsibility for the common defense.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher called the action ``historic'' and said it remakes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, created almost 50 years ago to combat the Soviet Union, into a far more flexible force focused on the diverse dangers of the next century.
``This is a win-win-win situation for everyone,'' Christopher said. Alliance Secretary-General Javier Solana concurred that the meeting produced ``a new NATO.''
The plan permits European members of the 16-nation alliance to take on peacekeeping, crisis management and other military tasks without full U.S. participation. However, the Europeans could augment their force with NATO intelligence, logistics and transportation units, most of which are American.
Christopher said European-centered operations would require the unanimous approval of all NATO members, including the United States. Other U.S. officials said the NATO supreme commander, a post always filled by an American general, would retain overall authority.
The plan is a watered-down version of a French proposal that would have given the Europeans a much freer hand to undertake military actions with only limited American participation.
Nevertheless, French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said Paris will rejoin NATO's military structure - which then-President Charles de Gaulle pulled out of 30 years ago - if the new plan meets France's expectations.
``France is ready, at the proper time - not today - to take its full place in this new alliance,'' de Charette said.
A senior French official said the plan adopted Monday is acceptable, but ``France wants to see within six months whether it is mere words or reality.''
The official said the U.S. military initially resisted the step, forcing NATO aides into weeks of bargaining to produce the compromise language approved by the foreign ministers.
However, Christopher asserted, ``Clearly the result is one that our own military has not only supported but advocated.''
On a related matter, the NATO ministers approved plans for creating combined joint task forces - NATO-led units that could include soldiers from Russia and other countries outside the alliance. The peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Herzegovina is such an organization, although it was established on an ad hoc basis.
``It gives NATO the internal capacity to plan for missions like IFOR [the Bosnia force] so we don't have to start from scratch,'' Christopher said.
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