ET French plan 'will kill Nato', claims top German general
By Tony Paterson

THE former German commander of Nato forces in Kosovo has delivered a strong condemnation of French policy on the planned European Reaction Force which he said could lead to the destruction of the North Atlantic alliance.

Gen Klaus Reinhardt also predicted that the goal of turning the proposed 60,000-strong Euro army into an effective fighting force was at risk of being no more than "window dressing" unless European governments provided more funding for the project.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Gen Reinhardt, 60, who retired from his Nato post in the Balkans in March last year, said that France appeared to want to set up an army that could be largely separate from Nato. He said: "We have all survived after the war under Nato's umbrella and I would not like to jeopardise this by replacing the alliance with something else."

In a reference to French policy, he said: "We should not attempt to build something that is totally different because we won't be able to afford it and we don't have enough qualified personnel to run such an operation. We should realise that this is a detrimental approach which in the long term could kill off Nato."

France's enthusiastic backing for the European defence initiative is widely seen as a move to undermine American military influence in Europe. Critics of the proposed force have called it a "Euro army" and claim that the French see it as a precursor to a future joint European army.

Gen Reinhardt's remarks followed comments last week by John Major, the former Conservative prime minister, who accused his successor, Tony Blair, of playing into the hands of the French by allowing the creation of a Euro army that was aimed at undermining the primacy of Nato.

Mr Major said: "The French have had their own agenda on Nato since the time of de Gaulle: they are now semi-detached from the Alliance and would dearly love the rest of Europe to share their policy." Washington has voiced fears that the European Union's planned rapid reaction force could weaken Nato.

It has nevertheless formally supported the project on the basis of assurances from Britain and other allies that it would prompt Europe to spend more on defence and develop the ability to deploy its forces more effectively. Gen Reinhardt said that Europe's target of developing a 60,000-strong force which would be available for a 60-day deployment would be meaningless without better funding.

He said: "The term rapid reaction force is a label on the bottle, the wine inside is still the same. It is not enough to just call it a rapid reaction force: training, equipment, strategic assets and core forces are all missing. This costs a lot of money. We are running some $16 billion [£11.3 billion] behind the United States in terms of defence spending and are still a long way from our objective."

This assessment was borne out by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London in a report last week that calculated that European defence spending continued to decline by five per cent annually in real terms. It concluded that unless the situation were reversed it would be difficult to create the self-sustaining force that the EU has pledged will be ready to begin initial deployment by 2003.

Britain has agreed to commit 20,000 troops to the rapid reaction force with Germany providing 18,000 men. However Gen Reinhardt said that while all European member states faced funding problems, his own country faced particular difficulties in raising cash for the project.

Rudolf Scharping, the German Defence Minister, calculates that his country's defence spending on new equipment will have to double to more than £5 billion annually if its army is to meet its modernisation targets.

Both Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and Hans Eichel, his finance minister, have refused to contemplate any increase in Germany's 2002 defence budget of £15.5 billion arguing that it would unravel the country's debt-control and social spending programmes. The budget is due to be ratified by parliament next month.

Gen Reinhardt said that in view of his country's slowing economy and the government's plans to increase social spending, it was unlikely that the defence targets would be met, especially as Germany faced a general election next year. He said: "The fact is that politicians are not willing to spend more cash on the military in an election year."

Gen Reinhardt said that Europe should nevertheless remain committed to the idea of a European rapid reaction force which operated firmly within a Nato framework and used the alliance's existing operational and planning staff.

He said: "The Americans have to realise that this is nothing against Nato. I am a fervent and ardent supporter of the Alliance but I think the Europeans can do more. It would be a disaster if we were to separate the rapid reaction force from Nato by building up a totally new staff and planning set up."

He also called for a joint military doctrine worked out by Nato which would establish minimum standards for all forces deployed in the rapid reaction force. He said: "The rapid reaction force should eventually become something like a drawer in the Nato cupboard that can be taken out and used again and which would rely on existing alliance planning staff."

-- Anonymous, May 27, 2001