Defence

France is one of the founding members of the Atlantic Alliance created by the 1949 Washington Treaty. Since leaving the integrated NATO structure in 1966, France has continued to participate fully in the activities of the political bodies. For France, the Atlantic Alliance symbolises the strategic links between Europe, the United States and Canada. At the same time, the Alliance is the natural framework for consolidating the European strategic area. In January 1994, the North Atlantic Council adopted the ‘Partnership for Peace’ with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The programme paved the way for the expansion of the Alliance by promoting modernisation of these countries’ armed forces and interoperability with NATO forces. In March 1999, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. The Prague Summit in November 2002 marked the enlargement of the Alliance with seven new members (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), which became active members on 1 January 2003. NATO and Russia initiated cooperation in Paris in June 1997 and developed it further in Rome in May 2002 by creating the NATO-Russia Council, which involves Russia in virtually all of the Alliance’s decisions.

France is one of the leading contributors of personnel and funding to NATO, with 5,000 of its troops committed to Alliance operations. France contributes 15.3% of the civilian budget and 13.8% of the military budget for the Alliance. France considers that the European defence structure and the NATO structure are complements to each other and not rivals. The Alliance should be the special forum for transatlantic consultation so that Americans and Europeans are ready to work together politically and militarily within the Alliance when necessary for their joint security. France considers that the depth of the longstanding links between all the countries in the Alliance is a priceless asset that must be maintained in order to cope with current and future challenges and threats. The work on adapting the Alliance to meet new threats is critical and France is doing its full share. It approved the structural reforms decided on at the 2002 Prague Summit. France participates in the NATO response force and supports the policy for enlarging NATO to include the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.