AFP

Sarkozy marches France back into NATO command

by Philippe Rater -- Wed Mar 11, 7:46 pm ET

---

PARIS (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Wednesday that France would return to the NATO military command and seek a larger role as a full partner of the United States and its other Atlantic allies.

Four decades after General Charles de Gaulle declared France's independence from the command structure, while remaining a political member of the alliance, Sarkozy said the time had come to once more play a leading role.

"A state alone, a solitary nation, is a nation without influence and if we want to count for something we have to know how to bind ourselves to allies and friendships," Sarkozy told a defence seminar in Paris.

"France wants peace, France wants freedom and France also knows who our friends are and who our enemies are. I'm not afraid to say it, our friends and allies are first and foremost the Western family," he said.

Speaking as commander in chief, Sarkozy said France had been moving closer to playing a full role in NATO's missions and committees ever since De Gaulle's decision to withdraw from the command in 1966.