France, Turkey and NATO Reintegration

In the midst of this article on France’s efforts to improve security and defense ties with Turkey (damaged by France’s opposition to Turkey’s EU bid, and by a law passed by the French legislature recognizing the Armenian genocide), the question arises of whether or not France’s bid to reintegrate NATO’s command structure would need approval. The article cites unconfirmed reports in the Turkish press that Ankara was using the threat of a veto for some leverage on EU accession, while the French denied both that approval would be necessary or that Turkey would be interested in opposing the reintegration. Not surprisingly, with the most ambitious of Nicolas Sarkozy’s hoped for progress on European defense scuttled by the Irish “no” vote on the Lisbon Treaty, I haven’t seen much lately about NATO reintegration. But if there are any NATO hands out there reading the blog, give a shout. I’d be curious to know what you think about this question of approval.

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