US to Warn EU of Separate Military Command SystemThe United States was expected to warn the European Union of its attempt to set up a separate military planning and command system.When the defense ministers of the NATO member states met here Tuesday, two days prior to a scheduled summit meeting of European Union heads of state and government, US defense chief William Cohen was expected to air the Washington fear that the EU was to go it alone to set up a command separate and distinct of that from NATO itself. American officials fear that a separate EU military planning system could cut European NATO members that are not EU members out of the decision-making process. Such members include Turkey, Iceland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. France, which is not a member of NATO's integrated military command, would prefer the European Union have a more autonomous military planning system from NATO that is dominated by the United States. The European Union has been promised to use such existing NATO assets as intelligence, telecommunications and command in the event that NATO or the Americans would not get involved in a future crisis. The NATO ministers are expected to discuss during their two-day meeting NATO plans, the capability of the EU's rapid reaction force and the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. |
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