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Us fears blair support of eu military { October 15 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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US dismay over Blair's stance on EU defence
By Peter Spiegel and James Blitz
Published: October 15 2003 21:58 | Last Updated: October 15 2003 21:58
Tony Blair, UK prime minister, has dismayed the Bush administration, which believes he has embraced European Union efforts to set up an independent military structure outside Nato.
The US has received mixed signals from London despite assurances from UK diplomats that Britain would seek to scupper such moves.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, raised the issue in a meeting with Britain's Geoff Hoon at the informal gathering of Nato defence ministers last week in Colorado. Condoleezza Rice, White House national security adviser, has telephoned Sir Nigel Scheinwald, Mr Blair's chief foreign policy aide, to express her concern.
"There is no sense of crisis between London and Washington over this," said a senior Bush administration official. "But there is a sense of real confusion and real concern. For the US, the issue of Nato's primacy in Europe is of real importance to us. We have made that clear."
US officials last week expressed consternation to several European allies that the Franco- German proposal for a separate EU military command and planning structure came in April, months after the signing of the "Berlin Plus" agreement requiring the EU to work within Nato.
The US values Nato as its primary means of keeping western democracies in step over security issues. It sees the Franco-German plans as an attempt to undermine the organisation.
Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, last night strengthened calls for Britain to participate in a new European defence structure in a BBC lecture delivered in London.
"There is no Europe without European defence. And there is no European defence without Britain," he said.
The dispute with the UK stems from last month's tripartite summit in Berlin with Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor, where Mr Blair tried to repair strained relations by backing plans for more EU co-operation on defence.
US officials, and some within the UK's defence ministry, were taken aback by reports that Mr Blair had agreed to a statement proposed by Germany that the EU should be able to "plan and conduct operations without recourse to Nato capabilities".
Philip Gordon, an expert at the Brookings Institution who has spoken with US officials, said: "The UK had been assuring us for months that they are against this and it's going nowhere.
"Then, all of a sudden, Blair goes to Berlin and the perception here is, after Iraq, he had to 'make nice' and got wobbly on us."
Officials in the prime minister's office and the defence ministry yesterday insisted Mr Blair had not joined the Franco- German initiative.
US concerns have been exacerbated by the departure of Sir David Manning, formerly Mr Blair's pro-Nato foreign policy adviser. He has been replaced by Mr Scheinwald who is viewed in the US as more pro-European. xrefNato's rapid force launched, Page 8
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