Atlantic Council

From Gregory Viscusi, Bloomberg News: France should remain part of NATO’s integrated military command and push for greater influence within the 28-nation alliance, a former foreign minister recommended in a report.

In a statement, President Francois Hollande said he “largely approves” the conclusions of the report by Hubert Vedrine, who was foreign minister from 1997 to 2002 in a previous Socialist government. . . .

“A (re)exit from the integrated command is not an option,” Vedrine wrote in the report, which is posted on Hollande’s website. “It wouldn’t be understood by anybody in the U.S., nor in Europe, and would give France no new influence, quite the opposite. . . .”

France should be “vigilant and demanding” in terms of shaping the alliance’s future to ensure that NATO remains a primarily military alliance focused on the “euro-Atlantic zone,” Vedrine wrote. “NATO was not born to be the gendarme of the world.”  (photo Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)