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`Old Europe' plans to overhaul defences

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS april 30. The four anti-Iraq war European powers, led by France and Germany, unveiled plans last night to set-up a central European military headquarters in 2004. At a summit meeting here they also agreed to set up an autonomous European defence organisation which may some day either rival or come in conflict with the more than five-decade-old western NATO. It is ironical to note that the four — France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg — are also members of the military alliance.

The project has been immediately dismissed as "divisive and unconstructive'' by the American and British officials, though the dissident European leaders said their decision to set-up an independent defence organisation means no harm to the U.S. or NATO. However, according to European analysts today, the leaders are seen risking new tensions with the U.S. and Britain. Emotions on both sides of the Atlantic are running high. The Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, who hosted the brief and controversial "European summit", said his Government's purpose was to strengthen NATO's "European pillar''. A British official called the summit "extremely unhelpful'' and privately described it as a "coalition of the unwilling''.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, said there was "very little Europe'' within the NATO decision-making process which is seen dominated by the U.S. Implying veiled criticism at the Bush administration he said: "This is why we want a change." The seven-point strategy of the four NATO dissidents includes the establishment of a "nuclear collective capacity for planning and conducting operation for the European Union'', which in effect may mean setting up a separate and independent planning headquarters, which will be set up in a Brussels suburb. The Franco-German brigade would be expanded and this may give a big push to European Union's 60,000-strong rapid reaction forces, which may be in operation by the middle of this year.

The four said they expected some of the E.U.'s soon-to-be 10 new member states to support their initiative and invest more in military equipment, but did not specify any monetary obligations. The heart of the matter is about the definition and parametres of the so-called "one polar world''.

In a recent statement, for example, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, described France's desire for a "multi-polar world'' concept as leading to rivalries and instability and suggested that Europe and the U.S. must work as "one polar world''. The French President, Jacques Chirac, last night referred to Mr. Blair's remark and said: "For balance to exist there will have to be strong Europe and a strong United States linked together by a strong cultural pact. That means relations between the European Union and United States will have to be relations of complimentary and partnership between equals. Otherwise, it will be a different world which is not what France observes and wants.''

In another dramatic development, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, snubbed Mr. Blair, who was in Moscow to plead the U.S. case for removing U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq. The Europeans have long suspected that such a move would give Americans and British a "free access'' to Iraq's oil resources, which are second largest after Saudi Arabia. Mr. Putin insisted that U.N. the sanctions be maintained until an independent government in Iraq was established.

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