US Dismissive of Plan for New EU Forces Headquarters

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 30, 2003

US Dismissive of Plan for New EU Forces Headquarters

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The United States on Tuesday dismissed a plan put forward by four European countries to create a new military planning center for European Union-led operations, saying it is redundant and unnecessary.

"Four of the nations of the union have come together and created some sort of a plan to develop some sort of a headquarters.I will let my European colleagues discuss that one in the course of the next two days," Secretary of State Colin Powell said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

"What we need is not more headquarters. What we need is more capability, and fleshing out the structure and the forces that are there with the equipment that they need," he stressed.

At a mini-summit held in Brussels on Tuesday, the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to set up a military planning center, based in the outskirts of Brussels, by the summer of 2004 for "operational planning and command of EU-led operations without recourse to NATO assets."

"This is not directed against NATO," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said at a press conference held after the summit. "It's a reinforcement of NATO, because it will strengthen the European pillar."

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, US State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said the United States "believes NATO must remain the indispensable security foundation of the transatlantic partnership."

She said the four-nation proposal "appears to duplicate existing capabilities already available to European allies through NATO rather than increasing or strengthening European capabilities.

"The proposal to create a new headquarters also seems to be a diversion of resources from badly need requirements," Beck added.

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